Aidro and EOS partner to drive opportunities for AM in oil and gas
Aidro Hydraulics, an Italian supplier of hydraulic equipment, has announced a new partnership with additive manufacturing company EOS. The companies will work together to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing technologies in the oil and gas industry, leveraging their respective expertise to this end.
Founded nearly 40 years ago, Aidro’s main specialization is in valves and hydraulic equipment. About six years ago, however, the company invested in additive manufacturing technologies to explore new prototyping and tooling applications. Today, the company has a dedicated AM team and internal department that uses metal AM systems—including EOS hardware—to produce functional parts.
In recent years, the company has found inroads into the oil and gas sector by combining its knowledge of additive manufacturing with its decades of experience in fluids, valves, heat exchanges and spare parts. Notably, Aidro has participated in working groups that aim to lay out guidelines and standards for qualifying metal 3D printed parts for the industry.
Now, Aidro and EOS have signed a Letter of Intent in which they state their common goal of accelerating AM in oil and gas—in Italy and abroad.
“EOS and Aidro Hydraulics have signed a partnership agreement to bring additional value to the Oil & Gas industry with AM solutions,” said Thomas Weitlaner, EOS Director of Additive Mind, Business Development. “Aidro Hydraulics brings deep application expertise on e.g. valves, and hydraulic manifolds to this partnership and we are proud to work with Valeria Tirelli and her team even closer in the future.”
Through the collaboration, EOS and Aidro will support key industry players in the feasibility analysis of additive manufacturing with the aim of creating new technical solutions for oil and gas products. Ultimately, the partners hope to offer AM solutions that meet the high volume production needs of the sector as well as its regulations and standards.
The companies bring to the table a wealth of knowledge surrounding AM. EOS specifically will provide technical knowledge of the AM process and will support Aidro in the optimization of parts for printing. Aidro, for its part, will contribute its knowledge of oil and gas applications and products, including valves, heat exchangers and more.
“My company is an Italian SME, and as many Italians, we are flexible and creative [in finding] solutions [and] thinking outside the box,” said Valeria Tirelli, CEO of Aidro. “Additive manufacturing is an amazing technology that allows us to solve various problems and give life to an impressive amount of ideas. When it comes to petroleum and natural gas applications, we have the expertise and the technical know-how to develop AM parts, such as spare parts and new products. We have strengthened our relationship with EOS and with their support…we will be stronger and faster to serve the giant O&G companies [that are] more and more interested in additive technologies.”
