From parts to files: Wilhelmsen explores 3D printing with Ivaldi Group

“With an ambition to shape the maritime industry, exploring new technologies and business models are key,” says Thomas Wilhelmsen, group CEO at Wilhelmsen. “We are one of the largest suppliers of spare parts, and we believe that sending files and printing instructions digitally instead of spare parts can enable us to deliver faster, cheaper and more specialised products to our customers.”

"We see the future of supply as being on-demand, locally distributed and fully digitised. Wilhelmsen’s long history of innovation in the maritime industry, combined with our own expertise in additive manufacturing, represents a significant move towards a vision in which we can offer a solution that can deliver and print files and not parts, says Espen Sivertsen, CEO of Ivaldi Group. “By partnering to explore this space with us, Wilhelmsen just made that future a bit more real.”

About the benefit for the customer, Sivertsen says: “ Our research shows that we should be able to reduce delivery time from three-four weeks to as little as 24 hours. Printing on-demand will also reduce costs associated with minimum order quantities, storage, transportation and possible delays due to import.”

“The technology is not new, but we have yet to see this put into a larger, commercialised setting in the maritime industry. Through a partnership with Ivaldi Group, we can soon offer a completely new way of suppling parts to our customers world-wide,” says Wilhelmsen. “Rapid design changes and the ability to quickly bring new solutions to our customers makes 3D printing an attractive solution and the technology opens up several new possibilities.”