#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Nornickel’s Polar Branch is introducing special technologies for creating parts using laser. The project to introduce 3D printing in Norilsk began a year ago, and to date, specialists have achieved certain results. A 3D scanner has already been purchased for the Polar Branch, which can be used to create models of parts.
“The scanner requires a certain temperature and suitable lighting to operate. At low temperatures, materials change size, this affects its error. The scanner is very accurate – up to 0.25 millimeters, which is decisive for its operation”, said Alexey Razin, 3D printing implementation specialist at Nornickel’s technological innovation department.
The device is equipped with special sensors that send laser beams to the scanned object. The rays are reflected and hit two cameras, allowing you to see the object in 3D space and record it as a point cloud. These strictly located points according to their own coordinates in 3D space are converted into a solid 3D model, which, in turn, goes to the printer. An armored disk at the Talnah processing plant and a volute at the Nadezhdinsky metallurgical plant were already manufactured this way.
The device is new, and from today it will scan parts at production sites. It will reduce the time required to produce design documentation. Until now, parts were scanned by contractors, but now Nornickel can do this independently.
The issue of imported parts substitution has arisen due to the withdrawal of many companies from the market; printing using 3D scanning allows the enterprise to produce imported parts in the shortest possible time.
In parallel with 3D scanning, laboratory tests, chemical analysis and material structure are carried out to determine the operating conditions of the part. These parameters include temperature, environmental composition and load. After scanning, it takes about 60 days to manufacture the part, while delivery from abroad takes from 280 to 400 days.
Using a scanner and printer, you can print small-sized parts from powder and create a sand mold into which melts of various grades of steel and cast iron are poured. In the latter case, large-sized parts can be produced.
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Text: Denis Kozhevnikov, Photo: author
