In the marine field, 3D printing is becoming more and more popular, whether it is designing custom parts and high-performance components, or making full-scale scale models of ships.

In Greece, the tourism industry is considered a pillar economic industry, especially the leasing and sales of boats are booming and have become an industry with a lot of demand. Among the players in this market is Stefos Yacht Services, a company that maintains and repairs sailboats and motorboats.

Due to the often tight deadlines required to complete work, they have recently been using large-scale 3D printing solutions to speed up their manufacturing process and provide their customers with more custom and high-performance parts.

Massivit3D is a company that produces large-scale 3D printers, which can provide a solution of 145×111×180 cm, and has the characteristics of high-speed printing, which can meet the needs of ship factories for rapid repair of ships. For example, it is used to make dashboards and radar masts. And thanks to the large-scale manufacturing volume, the production of the parts is one-off, without any assembly steps, which facilitates its waterproofing. In addition, less waste is generated, reducing the impact on the environment.

In addition to repairs, Stefos Yacht Services also designs and 3D prints some modified parts for customers, or 3D prints molds for the manufacture of custom parts. The materials used are mainly glass fiber reinforced plastics. Stefos Yacht Services said that after adopting 3D printing technology, their speed of making parts is about 3 times faster, and the molding restrictions are much smaller, and they can design some special shapes of parts.

One of the major challenges facing the marine industry is the wear resistance of parts, which degrade over time and as weather conditions change. The parts produced by Massivit3D’s 3D printers were tested at sea for more than two years and withstood the harsh conditions without damage. And 3D printing can quickly produce parts in a short time.