
Roboze announced a new partnership to produce non-metallic parts in Saudi Arabia.
“Non-metallic” is an interesting term, but there’s a reason for that here. Roboze is an Italian company specializing in high-temperature materials for industry. These include advanced polymers such as ULTEM, PEEK, PEKK, etc., sometimes with carbon fiber reinforcement. They produce several machines ideal for this purpose, some of which have rather large build volumes.
The strength of these materials is significant, particularly when reinforced with carbon fiber. With their vastly higher thermal resistance, it is actually possible to replace metal parts with 3D-printed polymer equivalents, so long as the operating temperatures are not too high.
That covers a huge range of possible applications, where you could replace heavy metal parts with more lightweight polymer parts. This would be of significant interest to several industries, including aerospace and automotive.
The new arrangement announced by Roboze is a partnership with global energy company SLB, based in Saudi Arabia. Roboze has been working with SLB for several years, providing parts of this type to the company for use in the oil and gas industry.
Evidently, SLB was sufficiently impressed with the parts they had received from Roboze that they wanted to establish a local manufacturing center for these parts. It enables on-demand production of SLB-qualified parts for the oil and gas industry. Roboze explains:
“The agreement focuses on expanding Roboze’s manufacturing capabilities in Saudi Arabia to produce SLB-qualified components on demand. This strategic initiative supports the Kingdom’s transition to a sustainable digital supply chain, aligns with Industry 4.0 principles, and reduces reliance on global logistics.”
It’s quite possible that increased use of these parts in that region may grow as customers realize the benefits of low-weight polymer parts.
This is a classic case of “try it, you’ll like it” in action, and hopefully will make the oil and gas industry in Saudi Arabia a bit more efficient.