This is pretty cool stuff."The R&D team within the Siemens Energy Service Oil & Gas and Industrial Applications business unit sees SLM as a game changer within the industry. Today, spare parts are mass-produced, stored and sent out individually as required. In the future, some of them will be able to be printed, using additive manufacturing and associated processes such as SLM, right where they are needed and closer to the customer, reducing repair time by as much as 90% in some cases, the company said.......With additive manufacturing and SLM, our customers could simply order a spare part from the nearest Siemens service center. We could call up the part’s data package and manufacture it right there “on demand” with a laser system — no transportation costs for spare parts from distant locations, downtime would be minimized, and no warehousing of spare parts as only the digital blueprints would have to be saved.”
When I started, the machinist came to the ship and was days taking measurements of our many up and down pump cylinders and pistons then machining rings for each out of cast iron and ebonite. Then they had to be individually fitted to what ring groove they were in and how worn the cylinder was.
This is in a mere 33 years. It just amazes me