Thyssen Krupp has announced its collaboration with Wilhelmsen, one of the world’s largest providers of maritime products and services, to jointly develop additive manufacturing (AM) enabled commercial solutions for the maritime industry.

Under the Memorandum of Agreement, Thyssen Krupp and Wilhelmsen’s Marine Products division (www.wilhelmsen.com) will collaborate on providing 3D-printed components for maritime vessels, ‘leveraging’ Thyssen Krupp’s expertise in AM alongside Wilhelmsen’s in-depth maritime expertise and on-going experience of developing 3-D printing as a service for vessels.

The collaboration will also use the capabilities of the recently inaugurated Thyssen Krupp Tech Centre in Singapore and its Global Additive Manufacturing Tech Centre in Mulheim, which has been awarded the ‘Approval of Manufacturer’ certificate by the quality assurance and risk management firm DNV GL; this allows Thyssen Krupp to supply metal 3-D products for application in maritime and other industrial sectors.

Jan Lueder, CEO of Thyssen Krupp Asia Pacific (www.thyssenkrupp.com), said: “We are extremely excited with this new milestone for us in the area of additive manufacturing.

"After securing the world’s first certified facility for marine 3-D printing, we are now partnering with one of the biggest shipping companies in the world to deliver our AM expertise to our marine customers across the globe.”

Joining the collaboration is start-up company Ivaldi Group, a technology partner that is partly owned by Wilhelmsen and offers 3-D products for the maritime industry.

Espen Sivertsen, CEO of Ivaldi Group, said: “We are privileged to be part of this exciting collaboration paving the way for AM in the maritime industry.

"Combining our capabilities will surely positively impact the sector, as well as all our customers and partners around the world.”

Thyssen Krupp has over 162,000 employees in 78 countries; it generated sales of 42.0 billion euro in the fiscal year 2018/ 2019.

Founded in 1861, the Wilhelmsen group operates from over 2,200 locations world-wide, delivering products and services to over half of the world’s merchant fleet.