Additive manufactured marine component - Ni Al bronze propeller

Seaworthiness, also known as Fitness For Service (FFS), assessment of marine structures and machinery components is performed in accordance with the actual ship classification society's Rules and/or Standards. The maritime industry is for the time being taking an interest into Additive Manufacturing (AM) for the sake of design and manufacturing cost optimization. Components of particular interest appear to be valves, heat exchangers and propellers. For conventional manufactured materials, for example cast, forged, rolled, and extruded copper alloys there are well established marine classification rules and standards. Recently, Ship Classification Rules and Standards for AM materials has been published. The seaworthiness or FFS of a Ni Al bronze (NAB) marine propeller constructed by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) has been scrutinized by a novel approach of combining conventional material qualification procedures with identification and data acquisition (DAQ) of essential WAAM process parameters. A 520 kg heavy marine propeller, with a diameter of 2 m, was manufactured by the South Korean company SY Metal under strict observation of DNV South Korea. In this report the authors are presenting essential WAAM process parameters and authentic mechanical properties of the Ni Al bronze WAAM marine propeller; benchmarked toward authentic NAB cast propeller data. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.