There is immense potential for Aurora to leverage off DNV GL’s expertise and presence across many businesses in the global industrial sector. Whilst still in its infancy, the concept of remote mining and resources operations having self-sustainability and on-demand spare parts creation ability is somewhat of a revolution for these industries.
West Australian companies such as Covs Parts and the Wesfarmers owned Blackwoods have created multi-million dollar businesses supplying spare parts into the oil and gas and mining sectors over the last century.
However, if mining and resources operations can start producing their own spare parts on-site, courtesy of 3D metal printing and just pay Aurora Labs to buy the metal powder, the once revered business models of the Covs Parts and Blackwoods type businesses will start to look very much like last century business models.
The key however is certification. The oil and gas sector in particular, will generally be hesitant to use 3D printed parts on critical assets if they do not come with the same certification as name brand packaged spare parts that are generally distributed by companies such as Covs and Blackwoods.
All of which makes Aurora’s certification deal with DNV GL more than just a box ticking exercise – it is the last real hurdle for the small capped company to scale up and get serious about selling its product to operations that will spend $20,000 on consumables before the day has even started.
