Ivaldi Group and Wilhelmsen Collaborate on On Demand 3D Printing of Marine Parts

Ivaldi Group is a specialized company that wishes to bring 3D printing to the marine and offshore industries. By leveraging 3D printing the company hopes to repair, retrofit and extend marine vessels, pipelines and offshore installations. The company wishes to digitize spare parts and extend its reach across offshore and marine worldwide. Offshore and marine are often tightly regulated industries where one needs deep pockets and experience to subsist and thrive. In order to help Ivaldi navigate the offshore and marine industries, Wilhelmsen has partnered with the company. Wilhelmsen is a truly international marine giant offering repair and refurb services in 2000 ports. The company offers spare parts and consumables from anything from rope to chemicals. Wilhelmsen is kind of a UPS/Amazon of maintenance and repair materials for ships underway. They could provide Ivalvi with many connections, clients and collaborative options globally. Wilhelmsen mentions their partnership here.

Concretely Ivaldi will be putting a 3D printing facility inside the Wilhelmsen Ships Service’ facilities in Singapore. This facility will supply a limited number of partners with 3D printed parts.

Kjell Andre Engen, Executive Vice President of Marine Products, Wilhelmsen Ships Service says,

“Looking at the costs associated with our marine products sales, the supply chain costs are frequently at least as large as the Cost of Goods Sold. Additive manufacturing with a technology partner like Ivaldi will enable us to reduce costs and environmental footprint while also increasing our service capabilities to serve our customers”.

Sim Teck Siang, Procurement Manager, Berge Bulk a Wihelmsen customer and a member of the pilot project said:

“Long lead times, limited parts availability and extensive logistics are some of the challenges faced by the maritime industry. Operating and managing over 50 vessels, we require marine parts to be delivered to our vessels efficiently and in a short amount of time. The advancement of 3D printing technology, and its capabilities of using a diverse range of materials to produce the parts we require, is impressive. We look forward to explore 3D printing’s increasing versatility in the customisation of design and production of parts on demand via this programme.”

Espen Sivertsen, CEO of Ivaldi Group stated that:

“Ivaldi Group is working with stakeholders in the industry, from OEMs to vessels and their crews, to be able to revolutionize the marine parts’ supply chain. Using the Ivaldi Group system to provide cost-efficiencies and pairing that with Wilhelmsen’s global network and maritime expertise, we can better resolve the pain-points that customers face today. As an example, instead of having to buy a new welding mask because of a broken clip, a new clip was printed for one-tenth of the price. It was also delivered within 24 hours as opposed to having to wait the 3-4 weeks it would otherwise take to ship to the customer.”

The opportunity in any kind of specialized Maintenance Repair and Operations arena is large for 3D printing. Millions of parts are still flown and transported around the world and a ship at a standstill can cost thousands per hour or day. The sheer amount of technical parts on board a ship mean that any kind of incremental improvement to the availability of said parts globally would offer benefits to participating companies. Especially for Directed Energy Deposition technologies, MRO could provide for excellent opportunities. Parts could be added to and rejuvenated with DED and CNC. The path will not be an easy one with huge amounts of capital required for such a venture. Furthermore, certification in and of itself would be important. Insurers will have to agree to the technology choices and materials as well as the procedures as they play an outsized role in the industry. Specialized oil companies such as Schlumberger and oil giants like Shell will certainly be interested in Ivaldi and the goings on around the company, they could either take an interest in buying them or doing something similar themselves. Additionally, all parties in this demanding industry will be hypercritical of the real-life long-term performance of 3D printed parts for marine and offshore. I believe Ivaldi to be a brilliant play and we are likely to see many more specialized companies such as this one emerge.