From real-world part certification to significant investments in research, LRQA is showcasing its pioneering role in additive manufacturing (AM) for oil and gas at a talk at OTC Houston.
Moving AM beyond R&D in to real world operations
While other assurance bodies are just beginning to learn about AM, LRQA has moved beyond the R&D phase and into AM as ‘business as usual. The partnerships and joint industry projects we have started over four years ago have given us a deep understanding of the technology and allowed us to assist early movers with end-to-end assurance.
One key partnership is with TWI, one of the world’s leading research and tech firms focusing on materials joining and engineering processes. Combined with the knowledge of TWI’s 20 years studying AM, the two parties produced “Guidance Notes for the Certification of Metallic Parts made by Additive Manufacturing,” a goal-based framework that helps manufacturers in any field add assurance to their AM processes, providing a pathway to certification across industries, including nuclear, oil and gas, and marine classification.”
A major first for the oil and gas industry
The world’s first certified oil and gas component qualified under the framework was produced by the Safer Plug Company in the UK. Not only is it unique because of its certification, but it could not have been produced by conventional subtractive manufacturing. LRQA has also qualified the first AM facilities in Singapore and in the UK.
Part certification is only one aspect of the LRQA's suite of AM solutions. LRQA offers:
- Training around operationalizing for AM
- Facility qualification
- Material certification, eg. EN 10204 and Classification Standards
Meet our experts at OTC Houston 2018 in the NRG Park, Texas – April 30 to 3 May at Booth #3005.