See how GE's 3D printed parts brew beer

Innovation comes from the integration of cross-border knowledge and experience. With the combination of 3D printing and industrialization in the depth direction, according to the market observation of 3D Science Valley, GE began to use its aerospace field aerodynamics and 3D printing experience. Extending it to the cross-border beer brewing industry creates incredible results for beer brewing.

See how GE's 3D printed parts doubled beer brewing?

3D Science Valley divides the current 3D printing market landscape into two situations. One is the “downwind” situation, that is, there is no 3D printing as a manufacturing technology, and there is no design to change the product from the design side. The combination of different processing technologies and 3D printing technology does not take into account the detection of product performance, but is simply limited to the 3D printing technology itself. The application of 3D printing technology is limited to the field of prototyping, which is played by “fast” manufacturing. The advantages.

Another situation is the “upward” situation, which is just different from the various ways of the downwind situation, which is the advantage of 3D printing technology to achieve “complex” products, such as 3D printing to achieve more complex shapes. , the original ten parts are reduced to one part, the volume and weight are greatly reduced; or the metallurgical performance of the material is improved by 3D printing, or the material such as gradient alloy is produced; or it is realized higher Product performance increases the added value of the product life cycle.

GE began to extend its potential to the cross-border beer brewing industry, creating incredible results for beer brewing.

The beautiful Bavarian town of Bamberg has 9 breweries and many old towns with beer. Despite its age, Bamberg is still making breakthrough discoveries in changing beer and brewing techniques.

Kaspar Schulz, one of the town's old brewing equipment manufacturers, has teamed up with GE to bring the power of 3D printing to the brewing process. The use of 3D printed parts allows brewers to reduce the early preparation time of the brewing process, which ultimately increases production, which means more beer can be obtained in less time.

Before the fermentation, there is a crucial stage, which is filtration. The process is named after the German word "abläutern", meaning flushing or purification, allowing the brewer to separate the wort (sweet, protein-rich water) and ferment it into beer.

The water filters the grain in the filter bucket through a huge stainless steel container and gradually squeezes the sugar out of the malt. GE engineers designed a new type of insert that was manufactured using additive manufacturing (AM) (3D printing) technology, which has a special internal passage that allows water to be injected into the malt during shredding and whipping.

See how GE's 3D printed parts doubled beer brewing?

New 3D printed parts developed by GE Additives reduce man-hours in the early stages of the brewing process

According to 3D Science Valley, 3D printed blades can create turbulent flow through the built-in channels of 3D printing by creating an "inducing swirl field" that pumps water into the grain. GE uses aerodynamics similar to aerospace. Knowledge reduces the time to filter and spray processes by nearly 50%. In the past it took about two hours to reduce the sugar content in the cereal to less than 2%, and now it is reduced to less than an hour, which means that brewers can double the amount of beer brewed in a single day.

Kaspar Schulz is the world's oldest manufacturer of brewing equipment, and the company now produces a full range of beer brewing kits, from brewing barrels and fermentation vessels to software. It seems that 3D printed rack blades may be the first step in Kaspar Schulz's additive manufacturing. The next frontier in the beer industry is continuous brewing, and innovation in 3D printing in the field of brewing equipment is just beginning.

Meet in Frankfurt, Germany, 3D Science Valley founder Kitty will be on November 20, 2019, 11.0-A79 booth to introduce 2019 global 3D printing market trends, including equipment trends, material trends, application development trends, software trends. The current status of 3D printing in the Chinese market, including the SWOT analysis of China's 3D printing market, the highlights of innovators, the challenge of developing 3D printing business in China and the prospect of China's 3D printing development trend.