You are the captain of a 50,000-tonne container ship on a tight schedule. The ship’s $112,000 bronze propeller has been damaged by ocean debris at night. Berthing at Europe’s biggest seaport, Rotterdam, you contemplate a painful mental calculation: removal of propeller underwater: $39,000 or more; courier dispatch to the original manufacturer for repair: $11,000 or more. Propeller repair work, plus shipping a spare propeller to Rotterdam from Seattle: thousands of dollars more. Then add the dead-time cost of a ship docked in port, redundant, for 20 days or more. Should you phone the shipping agent now?
But fear not, because RAMLAB is here. The Rotterdam Additive Manufacturing Laboratory will 3D print you a new propeller... Read the full case study above to learn how RAMLAB is applying 3D printing to the shipbuilding industry.