MAN Truck & Bus is working with Replique to additively manufacture spare parts on-demand and locally.
The transport solutions company has first identified bronze manifolds for the supply of cooling water in a marine engine as a spare part that is suitable for 3D printing, with additional projects to be undertaken in due course.
By leveraging Replique’s 3D printing capacity, MAN Truck & Bus believes it will be able to reduce costs and further optimise its services to the transport sector. Recently, MAN Truck & Bus needed to acquire ten of these bronze manifold components, but found the parts were no longer in stock and the casting mould was unavailable. Assessing that manufacturing the casting moulds with traditional methods would have been both time and cost intensive, the company went via Replique to reproduce the ten manifolds with additive manufacturing.
For these parts, a Replique production partner deployed the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) 3D printing process to manufacture the parts in m4p Brz10. The components had a turnaround time of seven weeks, with tensile tests revealing that the chosen material exhibited ‘better technical properties’ than the original. Because of the success of these parts, MAN Truck & Bus placed an order for an additional ten units, with the company set to explore other spare part applications.
“The collaboration with Replique was seamless from our initial contact to the moment we received the finished parts. It allowed us to promptly assist our spare parts customers, and we are already in the process of realising another 3D printing project with Replique,” commented Thomas Hauck, Spare Parts Logistics MAN.
“The use of additive manufacturing enables companies to overcome traditional production challenges. We are happy to work together with MAN to ensure a reliable and efficient supply of spare parts in the transport and marine sectors,” added Dr. Max Siebert, CEO and Co-Founder of Replique.
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