Maritime economics depends on keeping ships at sea. Delaying a ship, its crew, and its cargo while waiting for a replacement part can cost a shipping company millions. That is why the industry has taken a keen interest in additive manufacturing’s potential to print parts on demand. To help make this happen, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) released its Guide for Additive Manufacturing, a certification process for the process of design and manufacturing of metal parts.
Parts availability is a constant issue for shipowners. Nearly two-thirds of US-flagged ships are more than 25 years old which impacts the state of spare inventories. If a replacement part exists, it will not be anywhere near the ship that needs it. If nobody makes the part anymore, then it has to be custom-built. Additive manufacturing opens the door to printing parts on-demand to get ships back at sea in days rather than weeks or months.
Patrick Ryan, ABS’s lead executive for engineering and technology, explained why. “This exciting technology can shrink the supply chain and lead times for specialized and complex parts as well as introduce new efficiencies driven by design innovation, reduced manufacturing time and improvements in parts availability.”
At Sea, Standards Matter
But before shipbuilders and parts suppliers can adopt 3D printing, they must overcome a critical sticking point: repeatability. As every hobbyist knows, there is as much art as science in 3D printing. The quality of the final print depends on a host of variables from the input materials to temperature conditions to post-processing. The maritime business is highly regulated and operators must know whether the parts in their ships meet quality and safety standards.
ABS’s guide will help the industry understand and minimize these risks by providing a framework for qualifying the creation of additive manufactured parts. Companies that get ABS certification in additive manufacturing demonstrate that they meet industry standards for:
- Additive manufacturing design
- Feedstock material
- Building processes
- Inspection and testing
“Additive manufacturing could help the marine and offshore industries significantly by being able to produce a low number of complex parts quicker than traditional methods like casting and forging,” ABS materials engineer Alexander Gonzalez said in the announcement video.
Next-gen Nautical Print-on-Demand
With the technology maturing and the economics compelling, the maritime industry is putting 3D printing at the heart of parts logistics.
In late 2020, the industrial group thyssenkrupp and Wilhelmsen Ships Service announced plans to distribute 3D-printed maritime replacement parts. Wilhelmsen operates in 2,000 ports worldwide and thyssenkrupp already prints parts for submarines and other seaborne vessels.
Thyssenkrupp’s innovation director, Abhinav Singhal, said that maritime customers “are realising the benefits from faster lead times, reduced costs and having more resilience in their spare parts supply chain. This is going to be a true gamechanger for the maritime industry.”
Replacement parts are the ideal driver for 3D printing adoption. Manufacturers and distributors cannot afford to inventory expensive, slow-moving parts. And their customers cannot afford the costly fulfillment lead times. Efforts like ABS’s Guide for Additive Manufacturing provide much-needed standardization that will make additive manufacturing the go-to way for keeping ships afloat.
