Giant 3D printer developed for manufacturing XXL steel components

Manufacturing individual large-scale components is usually an energy- and material-intensive affair. In the XXL3DDruck project, scientists at the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) have joined forces with partners to test a more resource-efficient way of producing XXL components. To this end, they produced parts of a ship gearbox housing with a mass of up to 3 tons layer by layer in an oversized 3D printer using a laser-assisted arc welding process.

The printer, with an installation space of 3 by 4.5 m, is used as a prototype for R&D purposes at the marine gearbox manufacturer Reintjes. It uses laser-assisted arc deposition welding to apply up to 3.2 kg of steel per hour.

Through additive manufacturing, the project participants would like to reduce the weight of a ship gearbox housing by several tons. The long-term goal for production is to reduce manufacturing and procurement time as well as to save raw materials such as steel by reducing the amount of material used per housing.