Additive Industries
Steel and mining company ArcelorMittal is using Additive Industries’ metal 3D printing technology to produce spare parts on demand.
The companies began working together in 2017, with ArcelorMittal installing a MetalFAB1 platform to take advantage of its potential to reduce physical inventory and shorten production cycles.
By targeting spare parts, ArcelorMittal has been able to additively manufacture several components on-demand and on-location, some of which are still running in the company’s factories. The company started out manufacturing smaller components, including part consolidation applications, before moving on to functional parts four times as big - with internal lattice and hollowed out structures - enabled by the MetalFAB1’s 420 x 420 x 400 mm build volume.
ArcelorMittal says over the course of the two years it has been able to produce large parts with the quality and repeatability to be deployed in challenging environments, while Additive Industries have emphasised how the partnership has allowed the vendor to test the capabilities of its technology for critical spare part production.
Add Industries ArcelorMittal
Figure A: Part consolidation application. Figure B&C: Larger, more complex parts.
“Additive manufacturing is an exponential technology, moving very fast,” commented Jose López Fresno, Head of the Additive Manufacturing Department at ArcelorMittal Global R&D in Avilés, Spain. “Our collaboration with Additive Industries is a clear demonstration of our ability to remain at the cutting-edge of this technology: we started by printing small specimens and have now progressed to large size and complex parts.”
“[The partnership with ArcelorMittal] enabled us to expand our experience to the steel industry from our main application markets in aerospace and automotive,” said Additive Industries CEO Daan A. J. Kersten. “It has become clear that metal 3D printing is a serious alternative for a large variety of cast parts.”
