When thyssenkrupp and Wilhelmsen stood collectively on the 2023 NAMIC World Additive Manufacturing Summit to announce their collaboration, it marked a doable flip of the tide for the way in which the maritime and vitality sectors procure components.
The three way partnership, Pelagus 3D, holds an bold plan to serve greater than 4,000 vessels and oil and gasoline platforms worldwide. To try this, the German metal firm and Norwegian maritime agency are leveraging additive manufacturing applied sciences and a world community of OEMs to construct a digital platform that delivers spare components on-demand.
Pelagus, basically, intends to grow to be the Amazon of the ocean.
The maritime and offshore sectors face a lot of the identical logistical issues encountered by different industrial sectors hampered by the lengthy, unbending lead occasions of conventional manufacturing provide chains however exacerbated by huge geographical challenges that imply spare components can typically take as much as two years to achieve their supposed vessels. This Singapore-based collaboration, cast after years spent testing the waters of AM’s feasibility and applicability, goals to drastically reform that mannequin and ship components to vessels in a matter of weeks and even days.
“The straightforward equation right here is that if the spare half shouldn’t be out there it results in downtime for the system and which means for both a maritime vessel or offshore platform, cash is wasted,” Kenlip Ong, Chief Govt Officer at Pelagus 3D, informed TCT.
Industries continues to inventory warehouses ‘simply in case’ with none assure that the components stocked will ever be put to make use of. As shared by Professor Jennifer Johns on the College of Bristol Enterprise College, within the UK alone, the variety of enterprise premises labeled as transport and storage elevated by 88% in 2021 in comparison with 2011, and in line with Ong, for the offshore sector, research have proven that round 80% of components stocked in warehouses are by no means utilised.
“The unhappy reality is that you just can’t inventory every little thing,” Ong continued. “You might be committing to upfront funding prices the place you are taking cash that you could be not have and taking loans out as a enterprise to place within the stocking of a warehouse. You won’t even use it however you want it since you by no means know when your pump system to your offshore platform goes to go down. It is capital locked away, so this represents a really large alternative for companies to profit from 3D printing.”
Pelagus 3D believes that chance may convey components to customers quicker, cut back the necessity for giant bodily inventories, and ship higher, extra optimised merchandise. In a mission with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, for instance, a return oil standpipe was efficiently redesigned, full with inside channels and Kawasaki brand, to scale back weight by 90% and delivered to a vessel in Japan in simply 15 days. Conventionally, that very same half would have taken 135 days to ship at an annual storage price of 340 USD.
“There is a sustainability angle right here too,” Ong defined. “Enchancment of the design is such that the valve angles and the circulate of the channels are improved so we do not have leakages. This can be a good instance of how we’re ready so as to add worth to our prospects.”
Wilhelmsen started 3D printing initiatives in 2019, engaged on easy polymer components comparable to gears. By means of a collaboration with thyssenkrupp in 2020, its enterprise mannequin shifted however learnings from previous initiatives and collaborations galvanised Pelagus 3D in its perception that additive presents large potential for the trade.
“We method it from a giant image perspective,” Ong mentioned. “It’s very totally different from 5 years in the past when folks had been simply making an attempt to get one or two components constructed as status initiatives. Now we’re this from ‘I actually need to commercialise this,’ and the one approach to do that is to have a giant image perspective and persuade senior administration that this can be a viable expertise that we should always put money into.”
Pelagus says it’s offering prospects with entry to the whole lot of the AM expertise spectrum. It’s working with over 80 suppliers throughout the globe and makes course of suggestions based mostly on half evaluation that decide one of the best methodology of manufacture, which is able to then be facilitated via a producing companion as near the purpose of want as doable. That is all completed alongside OEMs and maritime certification our bodies, just like the DNV and ABS, to ship components with a full guarantee and certification, and crucially, construct belief with the tip person.
“We’re working along with the unique gear producers to supply worth to them and uncover alternatives for them to pick out additive manufacturing because the expertise of alternative for particular spare components that their prospects require,” Ong mentioned. “We principally have a strategy to seamlessly combine it into the procurement processes of our prospects and I feel that has very large implications when it comes to uptake and use as a result of if you happen to’re simply doing status initiatives, so long as you’ll be able to ship these three components, [for example], it is superb. However for us, that is meant to be a approach for them to order components in actual time, frequently.”
The corporate is investing in constructing out its Pelagus software program platform and fascinating with ship house owners, OEMs and maritime engineers to evaluate their information, determine excessive potential components and make sure the platform is talking the identical language inside this new digital infrastructure. In response to the crew, in terms of the maritime trade, no suggestions is sweet suggestions however the checklist of corporations which might be already participating with Pelagus – Hafnia, Kongsberg Maritime, Doosan, Jets, Kawasaki Heavy Industries – and the 4,000 belongings which have already been onboarded, are an excellent indicator of the waves it’s already making. Earlier this yr, Pelagus additionally hit a milestone by securing ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, and ISO 45001: 2018 certifications throughout its international operations, validating its potential to persistently present spare components and companies on the high quality and regulatory requirements required by the maritime and offshore industries. That assure is additional fortified by the truth that Pelagus shouldn’t be making an attempt to exchange OEMs however is as a substitute working in tandem as a companion to reinforce their capability and add worth by reengineering conventional components utilizing information from their finish customers and getting merchandise again to them a lot quicker. It’s nonetheless a full OEM half, only a 3D printed one.
“For OEMs, the subcontracting or licensing of fabrication to an exterior provider shouldn’t be new to them,” Ong added. “Having a provider that is used additive manufacturing, so long as we’re in a position to clarify the dangers and accommodate for these contingencies, I feel that is one thing that they are very snug to do.”
The crew has grand and international ambitions. Within the subsequent few years, Pelagus needs to be the primary place that involves thoughts when a chief engineer on board one of many 40,000 vessels crusing around the globe proper now’s in want of a spare half. The imaginative and prescient is to have every of the key OEMs serving the maritime and offshore trade on board the platform, and encourage the adoption of AM applied sciences to unravel a few of their largest challenges.
“The entire concept sooner or later is to verify AM is admittedly well-known within the maritime trade, that is the main focus for us proper now,” Ong concluded.
This text initially appeared inside TCT Europe Version Vol. 32 Challenge 4 and TCT North American Version Vol. 10 Challenge 4. Subscribe right here to obtain your FREE print copy of TCT Journal, delivered to your door six occasions a yr.
