Hydraulic machinery |
3D printing boosts US manufacturing
A new initiative by the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory uses additive manufacturing to rapidly produce large metal turbine runners, critical for hydropower plants.
The program, called Rapid RUNNERS, aims to reduce production times and bring back domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies, promising economic growth and energy reliability
A UNIQUE MANUFACTURING PROGRAM for large metal parts holds promise to help revitalize American manufacturing and return clean energy manufacturing technologies to the United States. The approach could greatly reduce waiting times for critical components and enable economic growth in the manufacturing sector for energy, according to scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The project, Rapid Research on Universal Near Net Shape Fabrication Strategies for Expedited Runner Systems, or Rapid RUNNERS, received DOE
42 | October 2024 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
funding of $15 million over three years to create a system to produce the large runners used in dams for hydropower.
3D printing The project will produce runners using 3D
printing, or additive manufacturing, combined with conventional tools, all produced domestically. The process will use robotic welders to deposit metal layer by layer to form the runners. “This has the potential to transform forging and casting of large-scale metal components,” said
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