Setting Course, an ABS Podcast

On-Demand 3D-Printed Parts with Pelagus 3D

• American Bureau of Shipping • Season 1 • Episode 19

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Using additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, to produce replacement parts on demand can support just-in-time operations and potentially mitigate supply chain disruptions for the maritime and offshore industries.

On this episode of Setting Course, an ABS Podcast, Daniel Tan, Pelagus 3D Chief Technology Officer, and Dr. Gu Hai, ABS Vice President of Technology, joined host Brad Cox to discuss the potential for on-demand AM for the maritime industry.

Learn more about how ABS is supporting AM for the industry here.

Share this episode and leave us a review or a rating on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact the show at podcast@eagle.org. More episodes are available at www.eagle.org/podcast and all major podcast platforms.

Key Takeaways

  • AM (3D printing) can address supply chain disruptions for the maritime and offshore industries.
  • On-demand manufacturing allows for local production of spare parts, saving time.
  • The cost of AM technologies is decreasing.
  • Companies are moving from just-in-case to just-in-time operations.
  • Pelagus 3D is implementing on-demand spare parts for the maritime and offshore industries.
  • ABS is developing a certification framework for AM.
  • Safety, mechanical performance and cybersecurity are key concerns for 3D printed parts.

Guests
Daniel Tan is the Chief Technology Officer in Pelagus 3D — a joint venture between Thyssenkrupp and Wilhelmsen — offering digital manufacturing of spare parts for the maritime and offshore industries. While managing the development of the Pelagus Platform, the one-stop digital hub for customers, design owners and fabricators, Daniel is also passionate about exploring innovations and partnerships that can create new value for platform users. Prior to Pelagus 3D, Daniel was with Wilhelmsen Ships Service since 2020 as Venture Technology Lead, developing the platform MVP (minimum viable product) and architecting the operations process for its 3D printing venture. A mechanical engineer by training, Daniel had also spent 10 years in innovation, and running research programs and institutes for the maritime and aviation sectors.

Dr. Gu Hai is Vice President of Technology for American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). He overseas ABS’ technology centers in the Pacific region, including Singapore, China, Korea, and Japan. These centers help further innovation and technology development in the maritime and offshore industries. They leverage the full depth and breadth of experience from across ABS’ entire worldwide network to support safety and innovation, locally and globally. He currently sits on the Singapore Maritime Institute Technology Advisory Panel, the Industry Advisory Committee at Singapore Institute of Technology, and the Digital Twin Panel of the Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers (SNAME). He was also a member of the Singapore Tripartite Advisory Panel for Transition and Future Skills for Seagoing Professionals from 2023 to 2024 and the International Advisory Panel of Singapore Maritime Foundation on Decarbonization in the Maritime Sector from 2020 to 2021. He holds a Doctor’s Degree in Engineering from Hiroshima University, Japan.

Brad Cox (00:08)
Welcome to Setting Course, an ABS Podcast, where we're charting the future of the marine and offshore industries. I'm Brad Cox, and I'll be your host today. 

We're going to be discussing an interesting slice of the maritime industry on this episode. Our industry is a complex web of stakeholders, relationships and logistics. So, when a shipyard or ship can't get a replacement part, they can really throw a wrench into the whole thing. Enter additive manufacturing.

Now, most of you have probably heard of 3D printing and we'll use the terms probably interchangeably here, but we're not talking about prototypes or trinkets. Additive manufacturing has some serious potential for supplying the maritime industry with on-demand replacement parts made from a variety of materials, including metal. 

We have a couple of guests with us today to discuss additive manufacturing and its potential impact on the industry. I'm very pleased to have Daniel Tan, Chief Technology Officer from Pelagus 3D with us today. Pelagus 3D is an on-demand manufacturing partner for the maritime industry. Thank you for joining the show, Daniel.

Daniel Tan (01:05)
Thank you, Brad. Appreciate it. And thank you, Dr. Gu, for being my counterpart for this session. Really excited to share during this session.

Brad Cox (01:12)
Right, yeah, Daniel kind of tipped off the next one. Obviously, we have joining us Dr. Gu Hai, ABS Vice President of Technology. Really glad you could be with us today, Gu Hai.

Gu Hai (01:22)
Thank you, Brad. It's a real pleasure. And likewise, Daniel, it's a pleasure to have this podcast with you.

Brad Cox (01:29)
So, to go ahead and get us started, when I think about 3D printing, I'm thinking rapid prototyping, maybe even printing small things at home. But this type of manufacturing is really growing in a lot of industrial sectors. So, Daniel, what's driving that growth and why should it matter for maritime now?

Daniel Tan (01:46)
Well, Brad, there is real growing recognition in the industry that 3D printing, or what we like to call on-demand manufacturing here in Pelagus, to address real supply chain issues in the maritime and offshore industry. First of all, our users, they feel that there's a growing need for certainty over their supply chain disruptions. 

I think mainly in the past few years, we have seen macro events happening around the world, things like your COVID-19, blockage of the Suez Canal and geopolitical conflicts that has caused large disruptions in supply chains. And this really impacts our customers' assets because they cannot carry on their daily operations due to a lack of spare parts. And in this current technology age, they are looking for new solutions. And here comes additive manufacturing to solve the problems. 

There's an expectation now for companies to stay on top of the supply chain disruptions using technology. And what 3D printing can bring is that it allows for local production of spare parts. For example, Brad, if you require a spare part now in Japan, you can simply access your digital inventory, have it transported to a fabrication bureau in Japan, and they can produce it for you in two weeks. Rather than rely on the supply chain in the physical realm, you can actually use digital supply chain using the power of on-demand manufacturing.

Next, there's also the need for greener solutions and leaner operations around the world. And this is mainly driven by Paris Agreement. It is reshaping the global supply chain towards global carbon practices. And this moves companies from just-in-case operations to just-in-time. And this includes for spare parts as well. So what companies can do now is to host a digital inventory that can reduce production of just-in-case spares to save resources and warehousing infrastructure also. 

On top of that, there's advancement of AM technologies. Additive manufacturing used to be reserved for high technology applications, for example, in aerospace or medical. But the cost of AM technologies is actually coming down. So, metal 3D printing, for example, from my experience, is becoming 50% cheaper compared to five years ago.

And when it comes to the spare parts in the maritime industry, of course, this makes it a lot more cost efficient. And it can also address a larger profile of spare parts, making it more applicable technology.

Brad Cox (04:09)
And Daniel, you mentioned, you send the file to a manufacturing shop and they produce it in two weeks. How does that compare to the alternative? How long would it take to get a part without this method?

Daniel Tan (04:22)
Well, it really depends. So, it really depends whether the OEM, the original equipment manufacturer, has access to the spare parts in their warehouses now. So, it depends on the production cycle of the spare parts. If let's say you have missed the production cycle and the warehouse is completely empty now, it is not unusual to have to wait about 150 days, three months, depending on the practices of the OEM, to have access to that spare part again. And with on-demand manufacturing, you essentially use the same production files to produce the parts within a very consistent two-week time frame.

Brad Cox (04:58)
Wow, that's amazing. Gu Hai, what's your perspective on the growth of additive manufacturing? How did it really make the leap to where they're producing functional parts in two weeks?

Gu Hai (05:09)
Daniel gave a very good summary of this and I cannot agree more, but I just want to elaborate a little bit about what Daniel mentioned about the industry's move from just in case to just in time operation. That's really driven by the whole decarbonization of the industry. It means the whole maritime industry is trying to decarbonize and IMO is setting a very ambitious goal. And think about this —when the ship is traveling, it's in the voyage, the ships can optimize their speed so that they can just in time arrive at the port and everything should be ready for the ship. But what about spare parts? If they need a spare part, then if the part is not available at the port, if you have this on-demand manufacturing, we have the part just in time ready for the ship to use.

And that is an enabler to the just-in-time scheme. So that's pretty important. And that's also important for the whole industry when the ship owners and all the industry's stakeholders are trying to be more efficient, as efficient as possible. And those are driving the implementation and the use of additive manufacturing for maritime.

Brad Cox (06:20)
Right. Yeah, you know, we've talked about it before on the show where, you know, the fuels are not the be-all-end-all of efficiency. You know, it's a whole network of things. And I actually have a question kind of leading off of that here in a little bit. But first, Daniel, can you go into a little more detail about what Pelagus 3D is doing with additive manufacturing in the maritime sector?

Daniel Tan (06:40)
No problem. So Pelagus is essentially implementing on-demand spare parts for the maritime and offshore industry. We have started our service, in fact, within our parent companies, Wilhelmsen and Thyssenkrupp, in 2019. And during that time, we were just exploring whether there was an appetite in the industry to accept 3D printed parts in their operations. And since then, we have proved the value proposition that there is indeed appetite to accept this technology.

And so now we have matured our offering into a full-fledged program whereby we work with original equipment manufacturers to onboard their spare parts and to transit them from traditional manufacturing over to digital inventorying. So this digital inventory essentially encapsulates all the fabrication requirements of additive manufactured parts, whether it's your redesigned parts, your bespoke certification requirements for those components. Just put it inside the digital inventory and you can activate them anytime for on-demand fabrication. 

So this addresses the pinpoints of long lead time, poor part performance because you know through the design freedom that is enjoyed through additive manufacturing. In fact it allows our engineering team to perform a lot of redesign work so that the parts can last longer inside our customers’ systems. And on top of that, it also addresses obsolescence. So for example, if you have an aging system on board your vessel, maybe it's about 20 years old, working well other than having this spare part being not serviceable, what you can do is actually just fabricate that single piece of spare parts to give your system a renewed lease of life.

On top of that, we are also working with the OEMs. And this is important to us because at Pelagus, we do not provide gray market spare parts. We work with them to get the original specifications of the spare parts so that we know when we fabricate the item, it will work well within the system. And in addition, we also work with industry subject leaders, of course, such as ABS, because they have, yourselves, you have very mature guidelines when it comes to producing AM parts. So we're working with yourselves to explore how we can make, you know, mature the guidelines and make it more relevant and leaner for the industry.

Brad Cox (08:56)
Right, so you mentioned that the work with ABS and for a little background for the listeners, ABS and Pelagus signed a memorandum of understanding back in 2023 to advance on demand additive manufacturing and the technologies needed to make it happen. So, Gu Hai, can you provide some more insight into that MOU and what ABS is doing to support this technology?

Gu Hai (09:18)
First of all, ABS, we recognize the emergence of additive manufacturing as an enabling technology for the whole maritime industry to achieve digitalization and decarbonization and for sustainable industry. As a classification society, our role is setting up a robust certification framework to facilitate the implementation of additive manufacturing and to realize its full potential. That's what we do through all those collaborations with the leaders in this field, like Pelagus 3D, and through joint development projects and joint industry projects. 

And if we think about additive manufacturing, there are maybe three areas that 3D printing or additive manufacturing is being used.

The first one will be maybe entry level is used to improve current processes, such as like for fixtures. And this may be for welding processes or assemblies or outfitting. The second is on equipment spares, which may be applicable to new build and repair projects. And the third is actually on the decentralized manufacturing or on-site printing. This can be putting 3D printers near ports of call or shipyards, or could be very extreme use case whereby the printers are put onboard a vessel. 

This is very much the basis for this MOU between ABS and Pelagus 3D. And also this work will complement other ongoing collaborations that ABS is involved in. For example, the collaboration with Korean consortium to explore printers onboard a merchant vessel.

So all work we do, including the work, especially the work with Pelagus 3D, is to keep innovating our certification system to facilitate the use of additive manufacturing for the industry.

Brad Cox (11:05)
I'm really glad you mentioned the 3D printing on board a ship because I'll have a good question to dovetail off of that here in a little bit. But first, so, with any new technology, you know, it's important to identify the challenges, you know, whether that's technical, safety risks or even the logistics of implementation.

When we talk about alternative fuels, we also always talk about the infrastructure needed to support them. And it seems like on-demand parts are in a similar boat. Infrastructure matters. So Daniel, what are the big challenges Pelagus 3D has seen with delivering additive manufactured parts on demand?

Daniel Tan (11:38)
So, Brad, there are several facets to this. On the technical side, I would say it is not so much that AM parts are not being able to meet mechanical requirements. I mean, these components are well used in aerospace and medical industries. And for the maritime and offshore industry, in fact, the requirements are well covered using the additive manufacturing technologies.

So mechanical requirements, mechanical performance are by and large achievable with the current state of technology. But the challenges are more towards, I would say, the inspection and testing steps maybe could be matured a little bit more. Because after all, we're using digital manufacturing. The current thinking is whether there are avenues to certify parts using a digital approach rather than through expensive and time consuming physical testing. 

So the current steps for testing and inspection are taking reference mainly from traditional manufacturing requirements. And we really look forward to working with ABS to mature this even further through the, I believe there's some in-house work that ABS has in this aspect. And we'll be a happy partner to sort of try any solutions that come out of it. 

So on digital inventory, because we are after all storing IP, intellectual property, sensitive files within the web-based platform. There is some concerns whether there is an IP leakage, but that is, I would say, not a show stopper because that's how the current OEMs work today. They will share with their network suppliers their precious files and through on-demand distributed manufacturing is essentially managed in the same way. So in Pelagus, how we overcome this particular problem is that we ensure that there's anonymity between OEMs and our network of manufacturers, global manufacturers, which might produce the OEM parts. Because even if these local fabricators produce OEM parts, they will not know how to apply them. And that helps in providing that view of anonymity between the OEMs and our end users.

So on top of that, we are also implementing some digital rights management tool within our platform to give a bit more assurance to our OEMs. So on top of the challenges, the technical side, whether it's your digital inventory or mechanical standards, there is also the concern of cost. While I said earlier that the 3D printing cost is dropping, it is still slightly more expensive than traditional manufacturing.

And for end user companies, the appetite for paying more versus a traditional part, they're still struggling towards it, although it's going towards that area. I would say that they have to look at a total cost of ownership approach. So additive manufacturing enables just-in-time manufacturing with an MOQ, minimum order quantity of one.

This reduces warehousing needs and related costs and also helps to streamline operations in a more controllable way. So this removes a lot of overheads, in fact. So by taking a total cost of ownership approach, taking into account the overheads, our customer is able to assess whether the 3D printed part actually makes sense for them. And we take this perspective, take this approach to show the big picture of the benefits that our customers, our users can benefit from when using the on-demand manufactured parts versus traditional parts.

Brad Cox (15:02)
And Gu Hai, of course, ABS is always keen on identifying safety risks. So what has been your perspective on the challenges of implementing additive manufacturing?

Gu Hai (15:12)
So, safety is number one. And additive manufacturing is a relatively new technology compared to other traditional manufacturing technologies. So the first question we'll ask ourselves is what we can do to check and make sure the 3D printed parts can achieve equivalent performance in terms of mechanical and other functional performance as the parts manufactured by the traditional way. That's why we as a class society in our guide and requirements, we put the testing requirements to test the parts, test the facility, and to get the confidence for the industry to use additive manufacturing. So that's something we are doing. And we have a quite a mature guide framework for that. But we also realized that additive manufacturing is different from traditional manufacturing technologies. For example, in one specific way, the auxiliary technologies for additive manufacturing is quite advanced, more advanced than traditional technologies. For example, a lot of data is collected during the manufacturing process. It's a question for the industry, including ABS, is how can we leverage those data and make those verification or qualification processes linear or more streamlined? 

For example, we can use the data and maybe artificial intelligence or other methods, modeling and simulation, to predict the mechanical properties of the final printed parts. And use this as a base to replace some of the physical testing requirements so that we can streamline the qualification process. That's something we are developing with our partners, including Pelagus 3D, so that we have a streamlined qualification process to make the implementation of additive manufacturing for the maritime industry easier. 

To summarize this part is, safety is still number one concern of the industry and ABS. But we also realized the difference of additive manufacturing from the traditional ones. And we're trying to use the new technologies, such as the data driven models or modeling simulation to try to streamline the certification and qualification process. 

And another comments about the on-demand or digital warehouse or on-demand manufacturing is because we are transferring digital files, we are using digital files for printing, there is potential new cybersecurity concerns with that. What if the files are changed by hackers? And we should have a robust framework or system in place to address those new cybersecurity concerns. 

I would say, in my personal opinion, I would say there's a lot of opportunities involved in this. Additive manufacturing has some advantages to maybe provide a very cyber-secured framework. For example, maybe we can include some of the features in the printed parts. This will be like a signature to prove that this file or this printed part is authentic and is correct. By doing this, this cannot be done by most of the traditional manufacturing technologies, but it's possible for additive manufacturing. So although there are a lot of concerns, but there are many opportunities. And as we have a very promising future for additive manufacturing.

Daniel Tan (18:37)
Yes, and Dr. Gu, on cybersecurity aspects, we do recognize as well, from Pelagus, that there is almost a hygiene requirement to make our digital platform cybersecure. And for us, we implement things like penetration testing of our platform and to also sign up for defender add-ons within our platform to make it even more cybersecure than it already is. And there seems to be additional work that we can do. So if let's say there is a further maturation of what you talked about, enabling maybe scanning QR codes on 3D printer parts, that'd be something that we can work on together in future as well. 

Going back to what you mentioned about traditional manufacturing requirements that is the current regime that we are working on. For Pelagus, we help facilitate this process by storing the inspection testing requirements for all the spare parts within our digital inventory. And we do hope to mature this even further to have almost like an interface for classification societies to gain access of these requirements so that when these requirements are sent to our manufacturing partner on the ground, they can fabricate the component and almost check off item by item whether the parts are meeting specifications. And this helps to manage documentation when it comes to certifying the spare parts. And we believe that will be a leaner process. And it's something definitely we'll hope to trial together with ABS.

Gu Hai (20:08)
Excellent, Daniel. I think that's one of the main objectives of our collaboration.

Brad Cox (20:13)
So I always like to get out the crystal ball and ask people to predict the future. So, looking down the road, what does the future of additive manufacturing look like for the maritime industry? Gu Hai mentioned that there have already been some cases of 3D printing happening at sea. So, what's the next big milestone? Daniel, do you want to take that one first?

Daniel Tan (20:35)
So, we believe that additive manufacturing, on-demand manufacturing is here to stay. We will almost inevitably be working side by side together with the traditional supply chain. And I can imagine it will provide a leaner, more cost-effective, and greener alternative solution compared to just the traditional supply chain of today. So most offshore and vessel management companies will have this avenue available to them to get access to on-demand manufactured spare parts. And if we stretch it, if we think even further, we can even have this vision that certain OEMs, original equipment manufacturers, might not even need warehousing anymore. They could be just storing their spare parts in the cloud, in the digital inventory. Whenever they need an item, they would just activate their digital inventory to produce the components on demand. No warehousing, minimal logistics, and no locked up capital for keeping these spare parts for just in case situations. And at that time, the word spare for spare parts might not be relevant anymore because there's just no extra part lying around.

Brad Cox (21:43)
And Gu Hai, what do you think additive manufacturing is going to look like in 20 years from maritime?

Gu Hai (21:48)
I think Daniel has summarized his vision about on-demand printing and manufacturing pretty well, so I don't want to repeat. So, if I have the crystal ball, my vision about additive manufacturing is the industry has started to explore how can we use the additive manufacturing to create more innovative designs. For example, additive manufacturing combined with new technologies such as generate AI to create a generative design, to create a lighter, stronger parts, both for machinery and for even for structure. So these things are getting started. 

I can see a good future for this application of additive manufacturing for the maritime industry. If we go, stretch a little bit further, think about a combination of condition monitoring and additive manufacturing. Let's see if we have a machinery that's running. We have all those sensors monitoring the machinery, the health of the machinery. If through AI or other algorithms, based on the data collected from the sensor, we detect that some parts will fail after a few days or after few hours, then they will send a command to a 3D printer on board or at a port. Then the printer will print it out, the part. So you can replace the part before the part fails. That's something that's more science fiction type of application, but in my vision, it will be happening in the future.

Brad Cox (23:17)
Well, I'm sure several of our listeners will remember the ABS Technology Trends publication. I feel like there's some little bits, some nods there into that as well. So as we're kind of running out of time here, I'd like to open it up to any additional thoughts that you guys might have that you might want to leave with our listeners. So Daniel, you want to take that one first?

Daniel Tan (23:36)
Yes, sure. Additive manufacturing as a technology has always been exciting by virtue that it bridges the digital space to the physical realm. And having matured for over 40 near years now, it is really the time and place for it to bring about its benefits to spare parts management. The solution by itself is no longer research and development. It's very applicable towards real applications. And it's time for implementation of on-demand manufacturing with the maritime and the offshore industry. 

So in this regard, in work with classification societies, such as our MOU with ABS, is very important because it almost provides the platform for this additive manufacturing, this adoption of technology to grow and to instill the overall confidence in the industry that the technology is mature, dependable, and it's something that they can use on a daily basis.

Brad Cox (24:29)
And Gu Hai, any closing thoughts from you?

Gu Hai (24:32)
I want to quote our chairman's words. “Success is a team sport.” So we need collaboration. Collaboration is key. We have come to where we are today because we believe in working with partners like Pelagus 3D. There are many ongoing joint industry projects on additive manufacturing. I would encourage the audience to feel free to explore those joint industry projects we have been doing. 

ABS can work with many of our stakeholders in various ways to understand additive manufacturing and explore the potential and eventually get involved in some of those developments. So I will encourage everyone to — do not hesitate to reach out after hearing this and we look forward to working with all of you. 

Brad Cox (25:20)
Okay, that's great. So, you know, once again, it was a pleasure to have both of you on the episode today. You know, I think 3D printing is really cool, really amazing stuff. I just need to convince my wife that I need a 3D printer here in my home office. 

Gu Hai (25:34)
Great idea.

Brad (25:35)
So again, thank you, Daniel, Pelagus 3D, and of course Gu Hai for joining us for this episode today.

Gu Hai (25:41)
Thank you, Brad. Thank you, Daniel.

Daniel Tan (25:43)
Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Gu.

Brad Cox (25:46)
And for the listeners, thank you for joining us for another episode of Setting Course. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. To learn more about new maritime technologies, visit us at www.eagle.org. Thank you for listening.