February 2, 2015. Ural Federal University, TVEL, Rosatom Corporation, and Moscow Region-based IRE-Polus are going to work together on the development of Russian 3D printer, Director of UFU Engineering Center Alexei Fefelov says.

According to the university’s press service, a trial sample of the 3D printer (an additive device for selective laser surface alloying of metallic powders) will be complete as soon as this year. A trial device for making metallic powders will also be presented in 2015.

‘Russia has never made such devices before, there are only several scores of them in use throughout the country at the moment, and they are only used by research institutes. Only a couple of enterprises employ these printers for production purposes. However, while it is still possible to make do without them for the time being, very soon printers will become absolutely indispensable, as was the case with the Internet connection, for example. America, Germany, and China are already making them on a serial scale and have them installed at their production enterprises. We understand that additive technologies are one thing that must be developed now,’ Fefelov told UrBC.

The expert says UFU and Engineering Center aim to introduce these technologies into production and are working on a number of problems relating to this industry, that is, production of special materials, manufacturing of the printers themselves and of the material-production machines, certification of new technologies, and operator training.

‘TVEL, Rosatom, and enterprises from Ural Industrial Cluster are currently preparing project documentation for the machine,’ he said.