The British Royal Navy will be using 3D printing to manufacture spare parts for its ships in the future. The Ministry of Defense has signed a contract for two advanced 3D metal printers for this purpose. The contract, worth 383,000 pounds, was awarded to the company Additive X from Ripon. The new printers will be used to expand the Navy’s logistical and manufacturing capacities.
The systems are intended for the naval bases in Devonport and Portsmouth. They are intended to enable the maintenance units stationed on site to design and manufacture spare parts themselves at short notice. This will make it easier to bridge bottlenecks in the supply of critical components and problems with old parts.
According to the tender, the 3D printers must enable the production of metallic objects up to a size of 250 x 183 x 150 millimetres and a weight of up to 10 kilograms. In addition to stainless steel and tool steel, high-strength alloys such as Inconel 625 are also envisaged as materials.
A comprehensive training and support package is also part of the contract. A total of eight employees are to be trained in the use of the new systems. The navy hopes that additive manufacturing will lead to considerable cost savings and increase the operational readiness of its ships.
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