Wolz Nautic Italy adopts additive manufacturing for faster delivery of custom boat designs

Superyacht designers have, for many years now, been pushing the art of the possible when it comes to traditional materials and construction methods. A great example of this can be found in the custom hot tub and spa areas that are a regular requirement of any large yacht new build or major refit. These spaces have moved well beyond their function to demanding complex curves and shapes that make them as pleasing aesthetically as they are for their guests to relax in.

Wolf Nautic Italy translates superyacht designers’ concepts into actuality by placing acute focus on form, assembly, and production control. The end result needs to look as good in reality as it does when presented to a client on screen.

The challenge

The traditional constructional approach for a superyacht hot tub area is to employ a metal substructure, to achieve adequate support for the loads involved. This is then dressed using labour-intensive steps, including 3D scanning, levelling, fairing, painting, additional scanning, and manufacturing of custom parts – often with many adaptions and modifications. Dimensional control can be lost during these processes, causing problems with prefabricated components. Issues around wasted human and material resources and the effort required to achieve a great result have become acute in direct ratio to ever expanding design boundaries.

Seeking to address market demand, Wolz Nautic Italy identified that it required a complete step-change to guarantee design freedom while optimising the production process. After careful consideration it chose Massivit’s Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology as its solution. This permits complex designs to translate directly into 3D printed components offering excellent quality and performance and eliminating many labour-intensive steps. These streamlined processes lead directly to significantly improved time to market, while the additive nature of AM process saves or even eliminates waste.

The 3D printer solution

Wolz Nautic Italy selected the Massivit 5000 industrial 3D printer on which it creates water-resistant/hydrophobic parts in acrylic-based materials, offering light weight, durability, strong layer adhesion and structural integrity. A superyacht hot tub area is now capable of being engineered and produced in a matter of days, compared to the weeks or even months of a traditional construction method. Design iterations can be accommodated quickly and easily without the need for retooling or rejigging. Dimensional accuracy is assured, removing the need for time on board at later stages of the installation to undertake corrective work.

The results are striking. The traditional method of construction required at least four on-site visits to scan, finish and install the hot tub area. There was a limitation on how many tasks could be conducted off-site. All final finishing had to be concluded onboard the yacht.

AM has enabled assembly to be kept offsite at Wolz Nautic Italy’s factory where it can be progressed right through to final finishing and testing. Often there is just one shipyard visit, with obvious savings in time and avoiding disruption to the overall build schedule.

Traditional Assembly demands on-site work, occupying the site with a team, while AM allows for assembly at the factory, eliminating cross-building time on-site. Skilled labour is not made redundant by adopting AM – instead it can be more efficiently allocated to work on concurrent projects. This is a major bonus at a time when highly qualified staff are expensive and often in short supply.

Massivit’s large-scale 3D printing technology has also empowered Wolz Nautic Italy to tackle custom projects with ease – vital when serving the highly individualised requirements of the superyacht industry and its discerning customers. It helps to reinforce the company’s credentials as a global leader in delivering high quality, complex yet cost-effective solutions for the yacht design sector.

See the Wolz Nautic Italy full case study as well as further information on Massivit’s industrial 3D printers.