You may know what additive manufacturing – also known as 3D printing – is, but do you know how it transforms industry? US-based precision parts manufacturer Knust-Godwin is helping to answer that question for the oil and gas industry. The company has over 50 years of knowledge in traditional or subtractive manufacturing, so they’re capable of educating their customers on which manufacturing approach is best: subtractive or additive.
In the process of subtractive manufacturing, material is removed from your future-product with techniques such as milling and drilling. Whereas adding material to create a product is called additive manufacturing. This process adds one layer at the time with a special heating-technique that turns a non-solid material into a solid object. As the oil and gas industry is under extreme pressure to make their operations more efficient, Knust-Godwin plans to improve the production of complex and accurately manufactured parts by using both techniques.
Additionally, Knust-Godwin combines their manufacturing knowledge with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to simulate parts in 3D and show the results to the customer before ever printing a product. The platform also predicts build failures and measures stresses within materials to ensure customer satisfaction. However, some parts are not designed for the additive manufacturing process, but with the platform, they can be re-engineered and retested if it’s the best option. Using the platform with additive manufacturing, Knust-Godwin has been able to reduce the time to manufacture parts from 2 years to 8 months.
With the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, Knust-Godwin is able to make full use of the advantages of additive manufacturing and transform the oil and gas industry. Read the case study to get a detailed insight on how the company uses additive manufacturing. Watch the video to find out more about the company implementing the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Finally, take a look at one user’s perspective of how simulating a part on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform before additive manufacturing that part can save time and materials.
