From Petronor A press release has just been launched announcing that the company's subsidiary located in Muskiz (Vicaya) has started using 3D printing to manufacture impellers for water pumps. For this work, the company has relied on the experience the company has in metal 3D printing added, specialists in metallic additive manufacturing based in Derio.
Before continuing, let me know that Petronor has been able to carry out this work thanks to its registration in the Bind 4.0 program that the Basque government has in place, the same one in which it seeks that large companies find their perfect partner within the 3D printing sector.
Petrono installs its first 3D printed impellers in ten of its water pumps
Thanks to this meeting between companies, Petronor has found in Addimen the perfect ally to manufacture using metal 3D printing techniques for replacement impellers for ten of its water pumps, which are used to drain water in a non-critical service of the refinery that the company has in the city of Muskiz and that, in turn and to start the project, in the event of a critical failure, they did not compromise the operation or safety of the plant.
As is logical and they have understood perfectly in Petronor, using 3D printing techniques for the manufacture of this type of parts offers certain advantages such as short series can be manufactured without the need to create plans or molds, something that in the end means that it will be much more difficult for certain pieces to be discontinued with the passage of time.
On the other hand, 3D printing also has its negative part and this we can find, for the moment, in that the size of the manufactured pieces should not exceed a limit or the materials that can be used are limited.
I am a mechanical engineer and with the Lion 3 2D printer I created some small mechanical parts due to the printing sizes, but the results are very good, they work great!