Siemens Gas & Energy circular saw housing

Siemens Gas & Power keeps thousands of homes and businesses running. The Gas & Power Division - one of three Siemens companies - has compressors, turbines and generators worldwide. When a gas turbine housing needs to be repaired, Siemens engineers have to work very precisely with a circular saw. As the housings have very complex contours, a standard circular saw is not sufficient. In the past, the team has remedied this by purchasing standard circular saws and sending them to contract machining stores in the Philippines to create panels with custom contours and then sending them back to the U.S. for reassembly. This was not an efficient solution as engineers had to wait more than 3 weeks for their custom hand tools.

Siemens engineers realized that most of the circular saw components could be printed to exactly match the contour of the turbine. The team felt the Markforged X7 3D printer was the best choice and purchased it. "We bought a standard motor and the blade, but everything else was custom made," said Siemens Gas and Power Engineer Sam Dicpetris. The parts were first tested in Onyx - a nylon base with carbon short fibers - and then reinforced with a continuous carbon fiber to stiffen the structure.

With the 3D printed housing, repairing the turbines on site no longer took weeks, but just a few days. "We can 3D print tools that fit the exact contours of the things we want to make. That's different from anything you can buy off the shelf," says Sam Dicpetris. Siemens Gas & Energy has not only reduced the time it takes to produce these tools from weeks to days, but has also saved money and remains competitive thanks to modern technology. Sam Dicpetris estimates that the team has saved over 8,000 $ with just one customized circular saw housing and hundreds of thousands of dollars with other applications.

After tackling this project, the engineering team began to develop a concept for solving the problem using additive manufacturing. The engineers at Siemens Gas & Energy are now first determining whether manufacturing with the 3D printer makes sense before considering the traditionally manufactured components.

More than 100 engineers at Siemens Gas & Energy are now using Markforged technology and driving developments using additive manufacturing. These engineers are constantly exploring new applications - for example, modular fasteners for turbine blades - to improve their product line and workflow. Their printers are in operation almost around the clock, with little or no downtime. The company also uses the Metal X to produce individual metal parts. The external machine builder also has a Metal X in-house to meet the company's need for fast metal components. Next 47 (the venture arm of Siemens) believes in Markforged's technology and the people behind it and has invested in the company as it continues to grow.