Emerson Exchange 365

It began with the desire to innovate beyond the bounds of traditional manufacturing: Increasingly challenging customer applications require higher pressures and temperatures; extended time between shutdowns, turnarounds, and outages; and exotic metallurgical requirements.  When compounded, these challenges necessitate problem solving and innovation in manufacturing for the industrial market, including control valves. 

Additive manufacturing technologies emerged within the aerospace and medical field, enabling innovative design capabilities not possible or financially feasible with traditional methods.  Soon, parts with improved designs were available on the commercial market with advantages such as speed and complexity.

Emerson saw the opportunity and is investing in additive manufacturing technologies to help process control customers solve tougher problems, faster with similar innovative designs emerging in other industries. When Emerson approached Marathon Petroleum Corporation with an opportunity to trial a solution that engaged this revolutionary technology, they were prepared to lead the way for the refining industry. 

Marathon Instrumentation expert Pat Sanders explained how the idea was embraced when he presented “Starting from Scratch, How Emerson Delivered a Valve to Marathon Petroleum Using Additive Manufacturing,” earlier today at the 2016 Emerson Exchange in Austin, TX. 

Marathon – the country’s third-largest refiner – was an ideal partner for the project since its seven refineries utilize many Emerson products including Fisher valves.

“We agreed to field trial a valve with Emerson because we see the benefits of this exciting technology,” Sanders said. “Additive manufacturing brings long-term resilience and flexibility to Emerson’s supply chain, which helps us better meet our customers’ unique challenges.”

Emerson employed multiple additive technologies to execute an upgraded design to the Fisher 667 size “i” actuator that would accommodate a necessary range of complex parts. The new design featured an integral positioner mounting and an internal air passageway eliminating the need for external tubing.  It was then designed, manufactured, and delivered with more efficiency than traditional processes.

One method used was sand mold printing, which offers more flexibility by eliminating the time, cost, and limitations associated with the traditional need to create a pre-existing pattern block when creating part moldings. Instead, it applies a patternless process that spreads a thin layer of sand and binds it to create a mold which significantly improves casting lead times. Once complete, the mold goes to the foundry to create a final casting.

This method is used for large pressure boundary parts and enables rapidly testing many prototype designs and custom solutions engineered for a particular customer’s challenge. 

For complex internal parts, laser powder bed fusion – also known as rapid prototyping – is used to build parts layer-by-layer instead of removing material as is done in traditional manufacturing processes by milling or drilling. Lasers then melt these thin layers of metal to build a near net shape part. In addition, 3D printing was used to test the manufacturing capability to start from scratch and determine the true timeline for the entire process.

Both Emerson and our customers have started to see the proven benefits of additive manufacturing technologies into process industries as Emerson leads the way in code and standards development. 

 “Additive manufacturing allows us the flexibility necessary to help meet the customer’s schedule, as well as global demands,” said Rebecca Rutishauser, Emerson manager of manufacturing and technology for operations. “Furthermore, it enables us to expand our ways of thinking to solve these tougher challenges and create customized solutions to meet more specific and unique local requirements; leading the industry in codes and standards development.”