Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the energy industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked additive manufacturing (AM) startups developing solutions for the oil and gas industry.
Global Startup Heat Map: 5 Top Additive Manufacturing Startups
The 5 additive manufacturing startups you will explore below are chosen based on our data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. This analysis is based on the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 1.3 million startups & scaleups globally.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the 5 additive manufacturing startups in oil & gas our Innovation Researchers curated for this report. Moreover, you get insights into regions that observe a high startup activity and the global geographic distribution of the 171 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
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3yourmind – Digital Inventory Services
3D printing technology enables digital inventory services to help customers produce parts directly from digital designs. Engineers utilize digital inventory workflows to design parts, as well as to control and manage production. Digital inventories for 3D printing simplify production scheduling by using workflow software to lower warehousing and logistic costs. Further, digital workflows maintain lean and agile operations by manufacturing spare parts on-demand and on-site. Digital inventories are especially beneficial for oil and gas businesses operating remote oil rigs.
Polish scaleup 3yourmind provides software solutions to help companies implement additive manufacturing. The startup offers its proprietary software for digital inventory including Agile PLM and a distributed manufacturing network, Agile ERP. 3yourmind’s Agile ERP automates order management for additive manufacturing while Agile PLM is a digital inventory software for creating production-ready parts. The startup’s services also include automatic parts identification, computer-aided design (CAD) software, and application programming interface (API) integrations. 3yourmind’s Agile PLM makes it easier for engineers to design and manufacture parts and components in the aerospace and automotive, as well as machining, tooling, and oil and gas industries.
MiniFactory- High-Performance Polymers
Additive manufacturing, combined with special types of high-performance polymers, provides specific characteristics in finished products. For example, polymers offer improved resistance to heat, radiation, chemicals, and oil to increase material and product durability. High-performance polymers also reduce the weight of prototypes. In the oil and gas industry, high-performance polymers find applications in seals, connectors, fittings, and slide pads. 3D printing with high-performance polymers enables companies to produce spare parts faster and with lower costs.
Finnish scaleup MiniFactory offers the Ultra 3D printer. This printer makes use of high-performance polymers to reliably produce high-quality mass-customized parts, various small series productions, and functional prototypes. The startup’s approach of using ultra-polymers in 3D printing ensures chemical resistance, mechanical strength, and high-temperature resistance, up to 220 degrees Celcius, in the end product. Ultra-polymers also provides durability and weight reduction for industrial applications such as compressor systems and flanges.
PrintForm – Rapid Prototyping
Rapid prototyping is useful for quickly fabricating parts whenever the need arises. Software and simulation tools process CAD for rapid prototyping and enable cost reductions for manufacturers. This technology finds applications in the oil and gas industry, as well as for automotive, healthcare, and manufacturing, to enable rapid on-site maintenance support. Further, rapid prototyping enables functionality testing before production which minimizes design flaws and reduces the risk of structural failure.
PrintForm is a US-based startup providing 3D printing solutions for several industries. The startup helps engineers in concept modeling, rapid prototyping, and casing patterns of various industrial parts. The startup offers PASSPORT, a cloud-based parts-as-a-service platform that helps customers quote, purchase, and track custom 3d printed parts without hassle. Printform also offers additive manufacturing technologies including design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), stereolithography, selective laser sintering (SLS), fused deposition modeling (FDM), color jet printing, and direct metal laser sintering.
Aon3D – Industrial 3D Printing
Industrial 3D printing requires special printers that support metals, plastics, and special-grade polymers. Moreover, industrial printers are compatible with many materials, with several designs made ready for production. For example, industrial 3D printers make use of inverse stereolithography, FDM, and fused filament fabrication to improve designs, controls, and resolutions, as well as precision for industrial 3D printers.
Aon3D is a Canadian startup offering affordable 3D printing solutions. The startup’s proprietary industrial 3D printer, AON-M2 2020 is designed to enable the repeated printing of high-quality parts with a wide range of thermoplastics. Aon3D also provides high-performance carbon fiber and thermoplastic materials that are used in 3D printing. Oil & gas parts manufacturers utilize the startup’s carbon fiber material PEEK, to print air valves and other parts. PEEK also offers remote management from any device using the same network. The startup also offers training, design, and material selection services.
i3D MFG – Direct Metal Laser Solidification (DMLS)
Industrial metal 3D printers employ DMLS for aerospace, automotive, medical, tool, and turbo-machinery applications for manufacturing spare parts. Depending on customer requirements, DMLS prints parts that have different layer heights that, on average, run between 20 to 60 microns. DLMS minimizes waste and helps in building stronger parts with reduced weight and in complex shapes as well.
i3D MFG is a US-based scaleup providing direct metal laser melting (DMLM) and DMLS solutions for 3D printing. The startup’s DMLS uses 3D CAD models to fuse micro-layers of metal powder together using 400W lasers. DMLS-based prototypes take complex shapes including curves, lattices, and honeycomb geometries, that are typically seen in reactors and internal coolers. The scaleup also enables the printing of prototypes in a faster and economically-viable manner, when compared to traditional manufacturing techniques.
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