Eurobearings Elevates Large-Scale Component Manufacturing and Repair with Meltio’s Metal 3D Printing Technology

Heavy industry relies entirely on massive rotating equipment. When turbines or cement mills stop operating, the financial loss is immediate and severe. Eurobearings has spent nearly thirty years designing and manufacturing critical bearing systems for global original equipment manufacturers. Based in Cortemaggiore, Italy, they specialize in white metal sliding, thrust, and combined bearings. The sheer size of these specialized bearings creates significant engineering bottlenecks.

Historically, manufacturing these parts required casting or machining from solid metal blocks. This subtractive approach generated immense material waste, sometimes reaching up to 80 percent of the initial raw material. Furthermore, these traditional methods imposed severe limits on delivery times and material efficiency for heavy duty parts.

Expanding the Kinematic Envelope with Robotic Directed Energy Deposition

To eliminate these production bottlenecks, Eurobearings successfully integrated the Meltio Engine Robot Integration into their Italian production facility. This strategic shift allows them to utilize advanced Directed Energy Deposition (DED) wire-laser metal additive manufacturing solution for industries to apply white metal, commonly known as babbitt, alongside various other metal alloys.

The engineering team designed a high capacity robotic cell centered around a massive KUKA industrial robot. To break free from conventional printing volume limits, they mounted the robot on a mobile walkway or gantry. This mobility grants the robot an expanded working envelope, allowing Eurobearings to strategically position the deposition head to accommodate a wide variety of part sizes and geometries. The setup entirely removes traditional size constraints for manufacturing complex oversized industrial parts.

Slashing Lead Times and Recovering High Value Components

Adopting this wire laser technology fundamentally changed the economic structure of their production floor. The integration delivered immediate quantitative improvements across three main manufacturing pillars.

• Accelerated Delivery Schedules: By printing direct to part and minimizing subsequent machining stages, Eurobearings achieves a reduction in lead times of 30 to 50 percent for complex components.
• Maximized Material Efficiency: The Meltio process uses standard welding wire, which functions as the cleanest and most efficient metal feedstock. The technology enables near net shape printing, which drastically reduces raw material consumption. This precise deposition ensures nearly every gram of material is used in the final part, significantly lowering the overall cost per component.
• Precision Component Rehabilitation: Instead of scrapping heavily worn units, the engineering team now prints directly onto existing parts. This capability rehabilitates high value components with precision. It extends their lifecycle and provides substantial financial savings compared to purchasing new parts for the defense and marine sectors.

Strategic Impact Across Global Sectors

Eurobearings leverages this newfound manufacturing flexibility to serve global partners across multiple heavy industries.

• Energy and Oil and Gas: Producing turbine components that consistently meet the rigorous quality standards required for the energy sector.
• Marine and Defense: Delivering customized engineering solutions for high performance machinery.
• Cement and Rolling Mills: Manufacturing and restoring bearing shoes that endure extreme heavy loads.

Engineering a Sustainable Future

Reducing material waste and repairing components instead of enforcing full replacements significantly lowers the environmental footprint of the company. The robotic cell delivers a stable industrial grade process. This guarantees every single deposited layer meets strict quality standards while minimizing the environmental impact of heavy industrial maintenance.

About Eurobearings Based in Cortemaggiore, Italy, Eurobearings specializes in the design, manufacture, and repair of white metal sliding, thrust, and combined bearings. The company is renowned for its engineering excellence in the global power generation, oil & gas, and naval markets. www.eurobearings.com