Here at 3D Rapid Print, one of the fastest growing 3D Printing companies in the Thames Valley, we like to keep abreast of the latest innovations in 3D printing.
On November 24th 2021, maritime classification society the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) of Houston, Texas announced that it had been collaborating with multiple other companies to experiment with using 3D printed parts on the Polar Endeavour oil tanker. ABS had collaborated with oil tanker operator ConocoPhillips Polar Tankers and 3D Metalforge, both of which are also of Houston, as well as marine and offshore engineering group Sembcorp Marine of Singapore. The project started in February 2021 with the parts being manufactured and laboratory tested. After 6 months of operation, the tanker’s crew retrieved and inspected them; they were subsequently given a remote survey by ABS and found to be in good working condition.
The 3D printed parts were a gear set and gear shaft for the boiler fuel supply pump, a flexible coupling for a marine sanitation devices pump and an ejector nozzle for a freshwater generator. The gear set consists of a drive gear that rotates the pump’s idle gear, creating a difference in fluid pressure to fill the void; the gear shaft connects the impeller to the boiler’s power supply. The flexible coupling connects a driver shaft to a driven shaft for power transmission. In addition, the 2 shafts include metal components for 2 coupling sleeves and non-metallic components for a coupling spider, which can adjust the positioning of the 2 shafts if they are not properly aligned. Finally, the ejector nozzle increases fluid velocity to convert high static pressure into velocity pressure.
Another albeit relatively old example of 3D printing’s use in the oil and gas industry involves multinational oil and gas company Shell of London. Circa April 2016, it turned to 3D printing to prototype the detachable rig used to connect the Stones project’s FPSO to pipelines from the seabed. (FPSO is short for floating production storage and offloading; the term can be defined as “a floating vessel that acts as a mobile offshore production and storage facility.”) This included making 3D printed accurate scale prototypes of a buoy that would weigh more than 3,150 metric tonnes, measure 25m in diameter and 18m in height, and be kept afloat by 222 differently shaped blocks of foam. However, 3D printing’s use in the oil and gas industry traces back at least as far as 2013, when GE Oil and Gas opened its first 3D printing laboratory in Florence, Italy.
3D printing is an amazing tool. It can grow your small business or start a mini revolution in an industry. Explore what it can do for you when you contact us today.
Disclaimer: Featured image of “Offshore drilling rig, U.S. c. 1970” is a work of a United States Department of Energy (or predecessor organization) employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
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