Additive Manufacturing Delivers Complete Solutions for Optimizing Water Systems
Innovative material and enhanced design provides superior performance and exceptional durability for industrial filtration screens
Johnson Screens, a brand of Aqseptence Group, is the leading global provider of screening and auxiliary solutions that support various industries. With a vision of creating a world where protecting lives and our precious resources comes first, for 120 years the company has collaborated with industries and governments to achieve that shared goal to reduce harmful waste, provide clean water, and make the best use of our essential natural resources.
Following that objective, the company started to explore alternatives in Additive Manufacturing in 2019 to produce a proprietary filtration belt used to filter wastewater.
Table of Content
Project Breakdown
Industry
Industrial Water Systems
Material / Product
HP 3D High Reusability PP
Partners
HP
Technology
Multi Jet Fusion
End-Part
Belt Filter Screen for wastewater treatment filtration belts
Why Forward AM?
Provided material with inherent properties capable of fulfilling application requirements
The result
Reduced lead time and cost savings while improving overall performance and part durability
Challenge:
To increase the efficiently of removing solids from incoming water at wastewater treatment facilities while reducing lead time, labor, and overall costs.
Solution:
Johnson Screens turned to the Additive Manufacturing (AM) experts by choosing the HP Jet Fusion 5210 to print HP 3D High Reusability PP to create modular high-efficiency filtration panels. This innovative use of 3D printing offered an optimized solution that other manufacturing techniques could not since additive fabrication uses the smallest necessary amount of material to complete a given filter design. Johnson Screens also teamed up with Australia based Evok3D as their supplier, installer and maintenance partner for this project.
Polypropylene, a cost-effective, water-resistant and resilient material, was much better suited for filtration. The nylon material often used in additive manufacturing possesses absorbent qualities and is, therefore, unsuitable for this type of application. Polypropylene also offers high chemical resistance at a lower cost than comparable materials. Initial testing was conducted using 3D-printed components made from HP PP. After over 18 months in harsh real-world service, the new components outperformed the traditional stainless-steel filters.
This collaborative partnership between Johnson Screens, HP and Forward AM provided the advanced technology needed to fabricate the parts using polypropylene and implemented systems to meet the anticipated demand. The fully integrated post-process unpacking solution provided by HP also offers the ability to recover most of the powder without incurring high labour costs.
Result:
Using innovative materials like HP 3D High Reusability PP and optimized part design has resulted in cost-savings, a decrease in lead time (up to 10 weeks) and a 40% reduction in assembly time due to the design freedom provided by the AM process. This product’s successful implementation, testing, and durability have led Johnson Screens to move forward with plans to roll out this part globally. The filter panel design produced using the Additive Manufacturing process is the core component of one of the company’s major product lines. The effective utilization of the principles of AM has opened new doors for Johnson Screens, and they continue to develop and implement 3D printing solutions across various applications throughout their product offerings.
“We have seen major savings in lead time (up to ten weeks) and, due to the design freedom provided by the additive manufacturing process, achieved a 40% reduction in assembly time. That has led to improved cost and throughput in our Australian facility that we plan to roll out globally. Polypropylene, a cost-effective yet resilient material, is much better suited for filtration. We use HP’s fully integrated post-process unpacking solution to process and recover the majority of powder without incurring high labor usage. After this, we finalize our parts with a media cleaning system and 100% inspection.”
Denys Visser, Global Product and Research Manager for Johnson Screens
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