World-Gen Nov/Dec 2016

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WORLD-GENERATION NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 21
blade walls thinner could result in 0.5%
efficiency gains for a turbine like the SGT-
800, Navrotsky says.
AM is a “game changer,” Navrotsky
says. But Siemens is not converting all its
turbine manufacturing to AM. “We can’t
apply AM to simpler components; it would
be too expensive,” he says.
The company’s strategy is to use AM
for high tech components, such as burner
tips, burners and turbine blades where
there is a high potential to add efficiency,
enhance flexibility in the design process or
reduce costs. Otherwise, the company will
use conventional methods to manufacture
the rest of the turbine.
As Siemens ramps up AM production
for the more complex components, it
expects the cost of AM to decline, making
it feasible to use in simpler components.
Even with the savings of time and
materials, Siemens does not see the main
benefit of AM as simple cost reduction, at
least not yet.
The cost of manufacturing a burner tip
using AM is about the same as the cost of
conventional manufacturing, but the AM
part has better performance specs and,
eventually, could be manufactured at half
the cost, said Navrotsky.
Right now AM in Finspang is a
research and development effort. “We are
not looking at the bottom line because it
could be a distraction,” Fors said.
He admits that AM has not yet added
to Siemens’ bottom line, but it has “added
value for customers and made us more
competitive.”
Fors said the company’s AM efforts are
about taking the manufacturing process “to
the next level” and “scaling it up so that
down the road we will have cost benefits.”
In Fors’ vision, making turbine parts
using AM is part of a larger process of
re-inventing and digitizing the
manufacturing process. In that scenario,
AM starts in the design phase with
computer aided design (CAD).
As Fors points out, combining CAD and
AM is a radical shift for design engineers.
AM breaks down some of the physical
constraints of traditional engineering by
making it possible to more readily bridge
the gap between conception and execution.
In conventional manufacturing,
engineers designed parts within the
parameters of the manufacturing process.
AM allows almost any design to be realized.
To use the company’s phrase, “If you can
dream it, you can print it.”
In addition to giving greater design
flexibility, AM also allows for a quicker
vetting of design concepts. Prototypes can
be quickly made and tested, providing rapid
feedback. That results in a less risk averse
design process and shorter lead times.
In traditional manufacturing, failure is
to be avoided at all costs. It is expensive
and time consuming. One of the biggest
changes that AM is introducing into
manufacturing is an erosion of the built-in
conservative bias of engineers. Fors says it
is hard to get engineers to adopt that
mindset or to think that “to fail is not a big
deal, as long as you fail cheaply.”
Something, he points out, that is made
possible by AM.
Design and manufacturing are just two
of the steps in the manufacturing process
that Siemens hopes to knit together into a
single digital process. Those steps – design,
processing, post processing,
instrumentation and testing – are now
islands, says Andreas Graichen, Siemens’
group manager in the AM center of
competence in Finspang. Instead of islands,
Graichen sees those steps being brought
together in a seamless digital process that
incorporates feedback loops and self
healing processes.
Eventually that will enable
manufacturing to be handled remotely and
even in the cloud. In that scenario, Siemens
sees AM resulting in big gains in the
manufacturing process, including a 75%
reduction in development time, a 50%
reduction in lead time, 60% faster repairs
and 63% fewer resources used in
production.
PERSPECTIVE
RECOMMENDATIONS
What can you do to better avoid falling
victim to a damaging and often costly
cyberattack? Consider these
recommendations for the most common
types of attacks on the energy & utilities
industry:
Cyber espionage intrusions:
• Patch promptly.
• Track and monitor all inputs: Keep
good logs and review consistently to help
identify malicious activity.
• Train your staff: Developing
security awareness within your
organization is critical especially with the
rise in phishing attacks.
Crimeware attacks:
• Patch anti-virus and browsers.
• Capture data on attacks.
• Implement configuration change
monitoring.
• Monitor user behavior. Put
processes in place to track daily system
usage, particularly for anyone with access
to financial account details or personally
identifiable information.
• Denial-of-service (DOS) attacks:
• Segregate key servers: separate
critical systems onto different network
circuits.
• Have a mitigation plan: Know the
details of your DoS mitigation service.
Brief key operations staff on the best
course of action should an incident occur.
• Test for gaps: Test and update your
plan regularly as your infrastructure and
processes change, and as new DoS
techniques emerge.
• Also, given that many attacks come
through vendors, seek out partners that
also use strong authentication.
Additional cybersecurity information
and resources are available at
CYBERSECURITY SNAPSHOT
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HEAVY INDUSTRY IS MOVINGTOTHE CLOUD
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