The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), will focus on developing competence including qualification, certification and training for additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing.
DNV GL’s new centre will serve as an incubator and testbed for research and development of additive manufacturing technology for the oil & gas, offshore and marine (O&M) sector.
Why AM?
While AM is raising more and more interest in various industries, because of its apparent benefits of speed and cost against traditional product manufacturing, the adoption level in the O&M sector is still low due to challenges in its qualification and certification.
DNV GL aims at to make this new technology usable in the O&M sector by providing the industry with technical standards and guidelines for qualifying and certifying AM its equipments, processes, products, materials and personnel.
What to expect?
This facility aims to be DNV GL’s global competence and service delivery centre for assurance and advisory services in 3D printing and allied technologies for ship, offshore and oil & gas industry sectors, and has the potential to enhance Singapore’s vision to be positioned as a world leader in this technology and be recognized as an integrated global additive manufacturing hub.
DNV GL will invest in competence development and will be working with local research institutes and industry partners through joint collaborations to advance the use of AM.
On-going research
Since 2014, DNV GL has been investigating the opportunities and challenges that rise from the use AM in the O&M sector. In November, last year, DNV GL published the first guideline for the use of AM in the maritime and oil & gas industries, creating a clear pathway and systematic processes to assess every parameter that will impact the final products – ranging from the raw material used, the technology maturity, manufacturing procedure, and data transfer, to the actual printing and post processing.
Through the newly established centre, DNV GL is running the recently announced collaboration with Sembcorp Marine, SIMTech and NAMIC to develop and certify laser aided additive manufacturing (LAAM) technology in fabricating large-scale structures for newbuild vessels in Singapore.
DNV GL is also working with Aurora Labs from Australia to develop an AM certification standard, that will cover its whole value chain from powders to parts, certifying the technical performance of their technology, and independently endorsing their processes and products.
A joint industry project (JIP) is also underway to define absolute requirements for parts manufactured using the additive manufacturing technology. DNV GL has joined forces with key stakeholders to develop project guidelines, to enable safe introduction of additive manufacturing into the oil & gas and maritime industry.
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Source: DNV GL
