Reducing the timeline and costs for creating custom parts and spare parts for marine vessels.

Background

Production of spare, replacement, and customizable parts for nautical vessels traditionally requires multiple skilled craftsmen working for weeks or months to create a single mold from which a part can then be cast. This method – while unavoidable until recently – is both expensive and time-consuming. Velum Nautica, a leading Croatia-based company in the field of vessel maintenance and repair since 2002, recently began using a large-scale Massivit printer to produce custom marine vessel components faster, cheaper, and with less wasted materials.

“One of our customers recently told us he’d spent a year looking for a part without luck. Once the Massivit printer arrived, we simply printed parts on-site for them. In fact, we use our Massivit printer to produce molds within a few hours that would usually take two team members a few days to produce using wooden panels.”
– Bože Radan, Lead Design Engineer at Velum Nautica

Applications

The maritime industry has its own specific set of challenges, mainly due to the harsh environmental conditions such as moisture, salt, gale-force winds, direct sunlight, and more. These difficult conditions require components that are lightweight and hermetically sealed, while still being strong and resilient enough to withstand years of exposure to the elements. Massivit’s large-scale printers and proprietary printing materials enable companies like Velum Nautica to produce custom parts with complex geometrical features suited to any customer’s needs in a matter of hours – instead of days or weeks. In addition, the finished parts are hollow, which means they can serve as wiring conduits for critical devices such as radar antennas, or even be filled with a variety of strengthening materials for reinforcement.

“The build volume of the Massivit printer means that we can produce full-scale parts or molds without necessarily having to join them together. This has crucial benefits for maritime parts as it means we can ensure they’re hermetically sealed,” said Mr. Radan.

Business Benefits

Massivit’s complete A-to-Z additive manufacturing system eliminates the need for expensive and labor-intensive mold creation using traditional methods and materials, saving both time and money. The integrated advanced software allows for significant flexibility in design concepts available at the click of a button, meaning that you can design virtually any geometric form or structure which can then be printed autonomously – requiring much less manpower. From a business perspective, this means Velum Nautica can take on virtually any job, all while greatly expanding the company’s ability to manage workflow and increase overall productivity. “When a customer approaches us for a repair, they see the workmanship possibilities enabled by our large-scale Massivit printer, and then end up requesting additional, unrelated custom-built parts for their specific needs,” enthused Bože Radan.

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