Using MFFF to replace obsolete parts for Wien Energy
Sparox 3D is a business-to-business platform that since 2018 has been manufacturing spare parts and custom products for Wien Energy and parent company Wiener Stadtwerk, as well as external clients.
The organization primarily serves customers in the energy sector, as well as transportation, and oil and gas --- all industries that depend on legacy systems and which need to keep those systems up and running for as long as possible. When parts break, it is important to replace them quickly and desirable to optimize them against future failure if possible.
Sparox has recently pivoted from exclusively producing polymer parts on its UltiMaker S series 3D printers to producing green metal parts. Working with BASF Forward AM's materials and the latter's service provider Elnik GmbH for debinding and sintering of the green prints, Sparox can now obtain dense metal parts quickly and affordably while maintaining better control over their design. End-use items made this way are already in use within Wien Energy as well as external customers.
Challenge
Wien Energy had difficulty performing maintenance on the windows in their own high-rise facility.
Regular maintenance for the windows included replacing the seals and cleaning the sealing area. To do this, a special tool was needed with a specific geometry to open the window. All of the existing tools had been broken or lost and it was no longer possible to source replacements.
The original tool to open windows during maintenance was no longer produced. This MFFF design can be printed on demand at a low cost
Solution
Wien energy was able to design a replacement tool and use metal FFF technology to manufacture that replacement. This allowed them to integrate the printed part into their maintenance process and to retain the option of printing a new replacement on demand anytime the current one was lost or damaged.
Results
It's now possible to continue regular maintenance of the windows and there is no risk of a broken tool disrupting the process. It was also not necessary to replace the existing windows which would have been prohibitively expensive.
Leverage the power of metal 3D printing
Sparox 3D and Wien Energy have realized the power of MFFF across the energy sector supply chain and even for their own maintenance applications.
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