A review on additive manufacturing and its way into the oil and gas industry

Abstract

In the near future, the oil and gas industry is poised to become one of the greatest sources of revenue generation across the world. The adaptation of scalable manufacturing technology, commonly known as additive manufacturing (AM) in the oil and gas industry, offers huge potential to transfigure the way high quality 3D objects are designed, manufactured and distributed. The adoption of AM technologies in this sector also allows a high degree of freedom of design and could exponentially reduce the time taken for the product to reach the market. In this arena, AM can be a method of producing lower volume and highly efficient intricate products with various materials like polymers, metals, ceramics and their composites. Although AM has been around for several years, its adoption in this sector has been slow and limited. As it is in the initial stages, rigorous research needs to be done to standardize the materials and manufacturing process. In addition, there is a particular need to end the requirement of a finishing procedure. Continuous and significant growth has been seen since the beginning and the successful outcomes until now allow for optimism that AM has a significant role in the future of manufacturing. This review will mainly focus on ongoing efforts to bring widespread adoption of AM into highly regulated industry i.e. oil and gas, and will also identify future perspectives in this area. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018.