Knust-Godwin provides machining of large, complex parts for oilfield instrumentation. The company first introduced additive manufacturing as a new technology to help its customers develop new tooling designs and improve the efficiency and productivity of tools in the oil and gas industry. The company has now chosen to expand its additive manufacturing capacity to handle serial production, purchasing four RenAM 500Q laser additive manufacturing machines.
Additive manufacturing technology brings a number of benefits to the oil and gas industry, including production of components for downhole measurement while drilling and logging, which offer more efficient flow. This increases efficiency of flow rates and leads to longer tool life. The company is also benefitting from less waste, shorter lead times, and fewer post processing steps—products that typically took 6–12 steps to complete can now be completed in 2–3 steps.
Mike Corliss, VP of Technology at Knust-Godwin, says projects that previously required a 24-month wait from concept to commercialization can now be reduced to eight months. "The cyclical nature of the oil and gas industry means that providing parts quickly is extremely important," he adds.
The company sees additive manufacturing playing a large role in its future and is expecting to see a 40% compound growth year-on-year in the oil and gas industry, and 20% compound growth in aerospace, Corliss says. The company is also looking at purchasing additional RenAM 500Q machines for different metal alloys.
For more information, please visit renishaw.com/additive.