Signing of the Letter of Intent to establish a Joint Venture, ship management company Wilhelmsen Ships Services and German conglomerate thyssenkrupp will collaborate on delivering maritime spare parts using 3D printing.
The joint venture seeks to address cost of maritime spares and put the parties at the front of Additive Manufacturing fulfillment platform for the maritime sector.
Based on current data, maritime fleets spend approximately 13 billion USD a year on spare parts and with 50% of these vessels being older than 15 years, availability of parts are limited.
This makes fulfillment of orders for maritime spare parts costly and complicated, and in fact, supply chain overheads involved may oftentimes far outstrip the cost of the part itself, the parties explained.
Moreover, traditional manufacturing processes such as machining and casting often involve long lead-times stretching into months. As a result, ship managers must carry high stock levels of parts to ensure that they can fulfill orders, leading to high capital costs.
Hence, Additive Manufacturing provides a solution to these issues by improving lead-time and costs considerations as suitable components are fabricated near the vessel location in a matter of weeks, sometimes days.
We are already seeing very positive response from our Maritime customers on Additive Manufacturing adoption. They 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 and we are proud to offer it alongside Wilhelmsen,
…stated Abhinav Singhal, Director of thyssenkrupp Innovations.
This joint venture will, we believe, take the lead as the de-facto supplier of 3D printed maritime spare parts, continuing to bring the benefits of Additive Manufacturing technology to shipping companies by reducing the cost of spare parts, lead times and environmental footprint,
…says Hakon Ellekjaer, Head of Venture, 3D Printing, Wilhelmsen.
Headquarters will be in Singapore, serving also key port locations around the world.
In general, 3D Printing for Marine Parts is seen as a solution for the supply chain to reduce costs, delivery times and minimize the impact on the environment by offering Parts Replacement as a Service (PRaaS) – a breakthrough solution for digitizing and delivering parts on-demand using local, in-port production.
Wilhelmsen has been involved in Additive Manufacturing since launching 3DP Early Adopter Program last year.
