DNV has released a new service specification document with the aim to support stakeholders across the Additive manufacturing (AM) value chain to ensure AM products, assets, and systems are safe and efficient. The specification can support the global oil and gas and other energy industries to adopt AM technology for gaining cost and efficiency benefits while maintaining safety.
Additive manufacturing – the industrial equivalent of 3D printing – is an emerging technology which uses 3D model data to fabricate parts, enabling, among other benefits, significant cost and time savings. AM could help to avoid long, expensive production shutdowns and reduce supply-chain carbon footprints. Building trust in ‘printed’ parts is key to unlocking this potential.
The new service specification (SE), DNVGL-SE-0568, is being launched to define DNV's additive manufacturing qualification scheme and provide the basis for obtaining and retaining DNV statements and certificates for the endorsement of facilities and digital products/services, qualification of manufacturers, build processes, parts and part families, AM machine(s) and equipment and AM personnel. This is in accordance with the industry standard DNVGL-ST-B203, that DNV created for additive manufacturing in the oil and gas, energy, digital and heavy industry sectors. With years of experience in qualification of new technologies, DNV knows the value that can be unlocked through a systematic and effective approach to risk management.
Through this service specification DNV provides AM supply chains with assurance that equipment for manufacturing printed parts meet high standards of quality and integrity. Furthermore, ensuring that materials used to produce AM parts are of the right quality. “To enable additive manufacturing technology’s widespread use and help it to fulfil its potential in disrupting operations and maintenance in industry, there needs to be a greater level of confidence in the products required in its ongoing use,” said Brice Le Gallo, Regional Director, Energy Systems, APAC and Director of the Global Additive Manufacturing Centre.
"The DNVGL-SE-0568 service specification will ensure that safety and quality standards for additively manufactured parts are confirmed to, in order to build trust within the supply chain and to gain the support and buy-in of end users.” concluded Le Gallo.
DNV has been investigating the opportunities and challenges posed by additive manufacturing since 2014. In 2017, DNV published the first guideline for the use of additive manufacturing in the maritime and oil & gas industries. A year later, DNV opened a Global AM Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Singapore which is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), to serve as an incubator and test bed for research and development (R&D) in AM technology for the oil and gas, offshore and maritime sectors.
One of the objectives of the CoE is to develop competence including qualification, certification, and training for additive manufacturing. The newly released service specification DNVGL-SE-0568 fulfils one of the most important commitments made for the industry when launching the AM CoE.
DNVGL-SE-0568 is part of a portfolio of DNV Additive manufacturing related standards and recommended practices for the oil and gas and offshore industries, which can be accessed through here.