NEW YORK

A US Naval yard aims to print finished parts for ships within the upcoming year by using a 3D printing technology with the potential to change the ship building industry.

The technology is developed by 3D Systems, which has already introduced 3D printing to the aerospace industry and has now set its sights on shipyards through a new collaboration with the shipyard Newport News Shipbuilding.

"Whenever there is an opportunity to reduce the costs and part count required for building a ship, then there is a real value proposition. I would imagine that this is transformational for the entire shipbuilding industry if applied appropriately," says 3D Systems VP Neal Orringer to ShippingWatch.

The collaboration between Newport News Shipbuilding and 3D Systems was announced in May and is still in its early phase. Thus far, a 3D metal printer has been installed in the shipyard, which builds aircraft carriers for the US Navy.

"It is printing parts right now and we are starting to experiment and test those parts to determine if the quality is on par with the ones they make through conventional means in the foundry. Hopefully, within the next year we will have proven that the technology adds considerable value to the process and that this is the future of shipbuilding," says Orringer.

Skips several steps

Newport News Shipbuilding is presently casting, forging, machining and welding its own components needed for building ships. Those can be complicated processes, which require producing specially-designed tooling, even if only few components are needed.

A metal 3D printer makes it possible to skip several steps in the process. Using 3D printing a part can be simply designed with a computer and then printed on site.

The component still has to be cut from a metal work plate, but it is much easier than the current process, Orringer explains. He points out that the method also enables the printing of components that would otherwise require welding together several smaller parts.

"Are we going to replace foundries entirely? No, that would not make sense. But we will certainly be a much more formidable tool in the kit. There will be parts, particularly very complex parts, that will be much easier to make. Where you now see maybe 10-15 parts combined, you may see 3D printing consolidate that part count down to one. That happened in the aerospace industry," Orringer explains.

Already uses 3D design

If the collaboration between 3D Systems and Newport News Shipbuilding is successful, it would provide evidence that there indeed are valuable applications for 3D printers in shipbuilding.

According to Orringer, it is only natural that the industry is beginning to experiment with new applications for this technology.

"Shipbuilding was one of the first industries to adopt 3D modeling, and this is just a natural evolution," he says.

"Having observed some of the parts up close that are casted and produced by other means, I would say without a doubt 3D printing will play a growing role."

3D Systems has headquarters in South Carolina and is listed on the NYSE. The company was established in the 1980s by its current executive VP and chief technology officer, Chuck Hull, who invented the technology behind 3D printing – also called additive manufacturing, or stereolithography.

Newport News Shipbuilding is based in Virginia and is owned by Huntington Ingalls Industries and is an exclusive supplier of aircraft carriers to the US Navy.

English Edit: Daniel Frank Christensen

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