Additive Manufacturing for the Energy Industry

AM opens up huge opportunities by revolutionizing the manufacturing and repair of components

Download the comprehensive AM overview

Be it rapid prototyping or manufacturing parts for aero-derivative, gas and steam turbines or compressors, they can be designed faster, with increased flexibility, better materials, and optimized efficiency. This way, 3D printing enables cutting edge technologies with reduced time-to-market and quick upgrading of existing assets. Being both a pioneer and a leader in the industrialization of AM, Siemens Energy is in an excellent position to give its customers the products and tools they need for the next generation of power products.

Why 3D printing holds new opportunities for the energy sector

The digital discussion – produced by Enlit Europe and moderated by Power Engineering International Editor Kelvin Ross – delved into the nitty-gritty of what 3D printing is, how it could benefit the power sector and what the key limitations are to consider.

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What’s up in AM?

Is the 3D printer the better spare parts warehouse?

Around 25% of our spare parts at Siemens Energy can benefit from the use of Additive Manufacturing. Utilizing an AM supply chain can significantly reduce the overall supply chain lead time through part consolidation and elimination of non-value add machining steps.

Towards a decarbonized future: 3D-printing innovation for gas turbines

Relying on each other: A successful cooperation between Siemens Energy and E.ON Energy Projects has made testing 3D-printed parts for gas turbines under real life conditions possible. They help to run turbines more efficiently, lower their emissions or, if so desired, extend their service life.

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Our Portfolio

Rapid Prototyping

Parts can be rapidly printed and checked for certain properties before serial production beings, massively speeding up innovation cycles.

Rapid Repair

With AM, parts for industrial gas turbines and compressors can be repaired up to 60% faster and even upgraded to the latest part design.

Spare Parts on Demand

Traditional stockpiling of parts becomes a thing of the past. Since an AM-printer can precisely reproduce many parts from 3D-datasets, there is no need to have them physically on hand.

Rapid Manufacturing

AM enables the use of new materials and the creation of innovative parts with higher performance and new product features, while at the same reducing time lead times.

Gallery

3D-printed vanes have proved successful in the real world

HybridTech Repair

Top 5 AM Trends 2021

Additive Manufacturing paves the way for testing new energy sources (C) Göteborg Energi

HybridTech - new repair and upgrade technology

3D-printed vanes have proved successful in the real world

HybridTech Repair

Top 5 AM Trends 2021

Additive Manufacturing paves the way for testing new energy sources (C) Göteborg Energi

HybridTech - new repair and upgrade technology

Insights

Recording

Additive Manufacturing technology is enabling the transformation of energy systems. In this webinar Jochen Schleifenbaum (RWTH Aachen) and Julius Schurb and Markus Seibold of Siemens Energy will reveal the latest advances and explain how 3D printing is being deployed in the energy sector to deliver tangible benefits.

Three Siemens Energy experts joined blogger and journalist Sarah Goehrke for a conversation about Additive Manufacturing, women in men's jobs and the role of creativity.

Press Feature

Additive Manufacturing and repair experts at Siemens Energy have developed a solution to upgrade turbine blades instead of just repairing them. Specifically, it is now possible to implement cooling structures in critical areas to prevent blade tip failure

Markus Seibold joins ASTM Advisory Board

Press release

ASTM International’s Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AM CoE) announced six new additions to the advisory board, representing key stakeholders from government, industry, research institutes, and non-profit organizations.

Culture – the underestimated lever for speeding-up the adoption of additive manufacturing

Opinion

Changing the company culture could have a significant impact on the adoption of additive manufacturing says Markus Seibold, VP Additive Manufacturing at Siemens Energy.

Youtube

Markus Seibold, VP Additive Manufacturing, has been interviewed by Matthias Schmidt-Lehr, Managing Partner at AMPOWER, one of the leading consultancies in the field of industrial Additive Manufacturing.

SatellitePro ME Article

Ole Geisen, Head of Engineering Services AM for Siemens Energym ist sure that AM is not only a temporary trend.Read more in the current issue of Satellite Pro Middle East Magazine (Page 30 ff)

Company Portrait

Materials Solutions is a young company that specializes in the additive manufacturing of high-performance materials.

Co-operation

The agreement lays the groundwork for the creation of AM training solutions. Siemens Gas and Power will bring its technical application content as a leading industry user of AM to the partnership and combine it with ASME’s industry-leading competency model framework, agile course development methodology, and learning and development platform.

AM paves the way for testing new energy sources

Co-operation with Goteborg Energi

The production of gas turbine burners using additive manufacturing makes a decisive contribution to accelerating the research and development process for new technologies, that contribute to a greener energy supply. The installation of a test turbine at Rya for the validation of 3D-printed burners makes it possible to test different fossil-free fuels, such as hydrogen or biogas, in the future.

Event

Phil Hatherley, General Manager at Materials Solutions, explains what participants can expect during the site visit on February 25. "We have one of the largest fleets of Laser Powder Bed Fusion printers in the world with considerable experience behind our understanding of the technology and what it takes to make functional AM components for the most challenging applications."

Story

Complex metal parts can now be 3D printed, offering unimagined design possibilities in a faster and more flexible manner than conventional manufacturing.

Gas Turbine World Magazine

Municipal DREWAG utility has teamed up with Siemens Energy on an ambitious project to modernize a 25-year old combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Dresden powered by three 60MW V64.3 gas turbines.

AM projects at the Werner-von-Siemens Centre for Industry & Science

R&D

Two AM research projects, High Temperature Applications (HTA) 2.0 and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) 2.0, have been kicked-off in summer 2020 and, besides all odds of the pandemic crisis, are successfully reporting the first milestones already.

Youtube

Equinor used a drone tof fly a 3D-printed part for the lifeboat system from the Mongstad base to the Troll A platform in the North Sea.

Gas Turbine World Article

Braskem, the largest petrochemical company in Latin America, relies on Siemens know-how and AM expertise to shift to hydrogen.

E&P Plus Article

The Siemens Energy AM Monitor’s machine learning algorithms impartially evaluate the recoating during the printing of a 3D-printed component.

Press release

Göteborg Energi and Siemens cooperate for fossil-free cogeneration by testing state-of-the-art gas turbine technology that enables the operation of renewable fuels in the Rya Combined Heat and Power Plant.

Training

The aim of our 1- or 4-day trainings is to inspire novel thinking in part production and educate on the usage and design of AM parts.They are conducted by consultants and engineers from Siemens and Materials Solutions with multi-year experience especially Laser Powder-Bed Fusion (L-PBF). The training is based on company-wide use-cases and experiences in R&D and industrialization projects.

Digital Industries

Siemens' AM network is an online order-to-delivery collaboration platform for the industrial additive manufacturing community. It connects the AM ecosystem, simplifies the collaboration process, and streamlines the AM production process.

E.ON Reference

Additive manufacturing is revolutionizing the development and production of components in the energy sector. 3D-printing makes it possible to produce almost any structure. It accelerates rapid prototyping, which in turn shortens the design and market introduction of new components and devices.

Webinar: AM Repair Solutions for the Energy Industry

Webinar Recording

Would you like to get an overview of which repair methods are already in use today and what advantages they offer you? Do you need detailed information on the repair of gas turbine combustors, blades and vanes or turbine and compressor rotors? Do you want to know how repair processes are handled in a digital end-to-end chain?

IDEA – Additive Manufacturing for Series Production

Research & Development

The inauguration of the prototype of a serial production line at the gas turbine factory in Berlin marks an important milestone for the IDEA project. It is part of the initiative “Line integration of additive manufacturing processes”, funded by German Ministry of Education and Research.

Turbomachinery Magazine

Siemens Energy recently began its Onsite Specialty Services that includes welding and coating technologies and CNC and robotic on-site machining. The company’s additive manufacturing capabilities comprise mechanized cladding, micro laser welding, cold spray silver coating and laser metal deposition.

Award

Siemens has been recognized for creating new and advanced technologies that play a role in leading the offshore oil and gas industry! The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) awards highlight innovative technologies each year with the 'Spotlight on New Technology' award which showcases the latest and most advanced technologies that are leading the industry into the future.

World Pipelines Article

Radial impellers play an integral role in the performance and reliability of turbocompressors. AM can optimize the production of centrifugal compressors.

Youtube

Joel Telling - successful Youtuber and 3D Nerd - visited the Goerlitz AM workshop.Watch his latest video!

Story

The 1923 Ruston B2 was basically a wreck. The vintage vehicle was missing important parts, which made it impossible to restore. These parts, however, have been reproduced by Siemens’ Materials Solutions subsidiary using 3D printing technology.

Technical Paper Industrialization of AM

Presented at 9th International Gas Turbine Conference 2018. AM enables OEMs to manufacture and repair GT components faster and with enhanced functionality and performance. Industrialization of the AM technology and current accumulated field experience of AM manufactured components are discussed in this paper.

Case Studies Siemens Energy is driving the industrialization and commercialization of AM processes. Here are some examples of 3D printed parts working in the real world.

DREWAG

Dresden, Germany

3D-printed vanes proved successful

DREWAG AG operates a 25-year-old CCPP with three Siemens V64.3 gas turbines. As part of a lifetime extension and modernization upgrade, Siemens Energy replaced conventional turbine vanes with 3D-printed ones.
Phase 1 focused on the reproduction of the vanes, while in phase 2 improved, re-designed vanes will be installed. The initial phase already brought remarkable results: The vanes are characterized by high accuracy and show an excellent operational behavior after nearly 8,000 EOHs.
The new generation of vanes, that will be installed in June 2021, have an advanced air cooling design, that can contribute to increased efficiency and decreased emissions.

Additive Manufacturing - Gas Turbine Swirlers

Siemens Energy Customers

Globally

Industrialized swirler production

Production of more than 1,000 gas turbine swirlers per year with qualified industrial production process.
Lead time for critical component reduced by 20%, with reduced post-processing by 80%.
Optimized design for AM enables part consolidation from 10 pieces to one single piece.

E.ON

CCPP Philippsthal, Germany

Long-lasting success

3D-printed gas turbine burners have been “on duty” for more than 8,000 operating hours in E.ON’s plant, which provides electrical energy and steam for a potash mine.
The burners were manufactured in Finspång, Sweden. Each burner is manufactured in one piece, whereas they used to require 13 individual parts and 18 welds.
"As an energy service provider, precision and durability of our turbines are absolute necessities for us," says Niklas Lange, project manager at E.ON Energy Projects. "In our experience, additive manufacturing delivers this and even improves performance compared to older models.”

Nuclear Power Plant

Krško, Slovenia

Extending life after 35 years

Siemens achieved a breakthrough with the first successful commercial installation and continuing safe operation of a 3D-printed part in a nuclear power plant in Krško, Slovenia.
Produced in 1981, the replacement part is the impeller for a fire protection water pump that is in constant rotating operation. Its original manufacturer is no longer in business.
3D printing allows mature operating plants to continue operating and achieving or, as in the Krško case, even extending, their full life expectancy.

JSW Steel Ltd

Salem, India

Milestone for steam turbines

Siemens installed 3D-printed sealing rings on SST-300 steam turbines operating in India.
The 3D-printed parts are two oil sealing rings used in keeping oil separate from steam inside the steam turbine using pressurized air.
Siemens engineered, designed and developed the parts as part of a collaborative project between Siemens experts in Germany, India, and Sweden.

Power Plant

Brno, Czech Republic

First gas turbine with 3D printed parts

Materials Solutions in Worcester, UK, produced 3D-printed burner components for a Siemens heavy-duty SGT-1000F gas turbine in a power plant in Brno in the southeast of the Czech Republic. The plant supplies district heating as well as electricity.
The turbine’s operations are now supported by spare parts that no other large Siemens gas turbine before it has used in commercial operation.
It has operated since 2016 without causing any forced outages.

The Technologies

In use at Siemens Finspang and Materials Solutions in Worcester and Orlando

Selective laser melting (SLM), also known as direct metal laser melting (DMLM) or laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), is a rapid prototyping, 3D printing, or additive manufacturing (AM) technique designed to use a high power-density laser to melt and fuse metallic powders together. SLM is often considered a subcategory of selective laser sintering (SLS). The SLM process has the ability to fully melt the metal material into a solid three-dimensional part unlike SLS.

In use at Siemens Gas and Power in Nuremberg

Laser cladding is a form of surface coating that incorporates the use of lasers and a feeding mechanism to coat the substrate with a layer of desired metal or ceramic material. The laser melts the metal and coats the moving substrate with a fine layer. The feed metal is fully melted while the laser also transfers some of its energy to the substrate. This allows for the creation of a strong metallurgical bond between the substrate and the coating.