Technical and economic feasibility study of Metal 3D Printing in the Chemical Industry: Application to pump impellers

Identificador:  TDX:4009

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX4009

Autors:  Hernández Hernández, Felix

Resum:
The Metal 3D Printing fabrication techniques, also named Additive Manufacturing (AM), are in its birth starting point from the perspective of industrial applications and worldwide massive divulgation. The emergence of AM is renovating the landscape of available production technologies with multiple different and potential uses. Among them, in the Industrial field, as an alternative to the process of materials purchasing (price negotiations), manufacturing obsolete (not yet in the market) or new pieces and storage/custody of technical spare parts for the Chemical Industry. The purpose of this study focus on the application of Additive Manufacturing in metal for pump impellers in the Chemical Industry, but also in many other types of Industry. The scope of the project includes the construction of 2 metallic pump impellers, according to strategies 1 and 2 indicated below: Strategy 1: Manufacture additive technology type BJ (Binder Jetting) put into operation in a centrifugal pump at a Polyol/Polyglycol plant of Dow Chemical Ibérica SL from October 30, 2020, 6 months. Strategy 2: Manufacture additive technology type SLM (Selective Laser Melting) put into operation in a vacuum pump at a hydrocarbon plant of Dow Chemical Ibérica SL from October 16, 2022, 4 months. The development of the present work was based on next steps: design/scanning, manufacturing, pump assembly and commissioning. Next was analysis of the results once the pump is assembled and put into operation in the plant. And finally, make a comparison - under normal operating conditions - with the same previous service and with the same type of metal impeller but manufactured in a conventional way. This work further demonstrated that the implementation of metal additive manufacturing technologies in chemical process is a useful solution to fabricate spare parts that could be difficult to replicate with other technologies, providing potential economic benefits.