MX3D | Impeller

IMPELLER

This 350Kg impeller, 3d printed in nickel aluminum bronze, was presented by MX3D at its Formnext 2022 Booth, Frankfurt Germany. The impeller is scheduled to be installed in the cooling system of ENGIE’s gas fired power plant at Amercoeur Belgium early next year.

“To our best knowledge this will be the first installation of a large critical operational part, manufactured with WAAM, certainly in the Energy sector.”, Says Filippo Gilardi | MX3D

The part is traditionally casted with long lead times up to 6-8 months. With MX3D’s robotic Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) technology the part was printed in 9 days, with an average deposit rate of 3.2 Kg per hour, using multiple qualified parameters sets.

The project started with extensive material & parameter validation of test plates. The qualification of the material is performed by Laborelec, the technical expertise center of Engie, one of the world’s biggest energy companies.

Currently Laborelec is in the process of qualifying the part. For this the part was scanned in several phases of the project to check on deformations. Furthermore the parties performed NDT testing on critical parts during the build up. Post-printing the part underwent heat treatment to de-stress the part before the finishing step.

After the challenging milling step will be completed by Bravotech in Belgium, Laborelec will perform the final quality checks before installing it in its power plant in the first half of 2023.

“The ability to produce large qualified parts by means of 3D metal printing enables companies like ENGIE to reduce lead time, cost and risk”, Says Idriss