NAMIC Announces Winners of the NAMIC Global Maritime AM Challenge: Rescue Vessel Design Competition
The winners of the 3D Printing Competition NAMIC Global Maritime AM Challenge : Rescue Vessel Design Competition was announced at the NAMIC’s First Virtual Global Additive Manufacturing Summit on 21 Oct 2020, graced by Minister of State Low Yen Ling, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.
Organised by the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC) together with its partners Lloyds Register, ST Engineering, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), AML3D and Autodesk, the competition drew strong entries from around the world, namely from France, Russia, India, Peru and Singapore.
As part of NAMIC’s ongoing efforts to develop the AM ecosystem and accelerate adoption of Industrial 3D Printing, NAMIC partners with the key industry players and agencies to co-organise this competition.
The call for this global competition was to design an innovative rescue boat hull, leveraging the power of Additive Manufacturing.
The competition aimed to encourage innovative design conceptualisation of a rescue boat hull that can be manufactured by Additive Manufacturing techniques of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) or Continuous Composite Fabrication Technologies, which are seen as game-changers in the future of naval architecture and marine engineering.
This open global competition was launched late last year with the vision of realizing a next generation class-certified AM autonomous rescue craft, attracting design submissions from all over the world.
The prizes for the competition are jointly sponsored by Lloyds Register Foundation, ST Engineering and NAMIC. The jury had selected the top 3 winners winning $30,000, $20,000 and $10,000 respectively with the winning design to be further developed into a working prototype in collaboration with NAMIC and its partners.
Dr Ho Chaw Sing, Managing Director of NAMIC, shared that, “The competition was envisioned to spur additive manufacturing enabled innovation in naval architecture and marine vessel design, by developing compact efficient designs for human rescue in difficult waters as well as utilising the functional design freedom enabled by AM to create an autonomous vessel with embedded sensors in the ship hull. We are delighted with the global response and the number of quality entries received. Congratulations to all the participants and the winning entries!”
Dr Jan Przydatek, Director of Technologies from Lloyd’s Register Group shared his sentiments, “The adoption of additive manufacturing in the maritime industry and beyond has the potential to be transformative. Lloyd’s Register Foundation congratulates the winner and the runners up for creating a vision for the future. Having been part of the judging process, Lloyd’s Register Group now looks forward to a collaboration that moves the winning design to a safe prototype.”
Ms Serene Sia, ASEAN Managing Director of Sales of Autodesk, one of NAMIC’s partners, applauded the move to organise the competition, she commented, “We are thrilled to collaborate with NAMIC in support of the Global Maritime AM Challenge. This competition not only fosters exciting innovations from the next generation of engineers within the naval architecture and marine vessel design space, but also allows our engineering community to learn the benefits of additive manufacturing. As the industry evolves, it will be crucial for our organisations to work together to demonstrate how advanced technology can solve design challenges in order to continue driving awareness and adoption.”
Winners Details
1. The winning entry comes from Mr Benjamin Cann, an independent submission from France.
Mr Cann is honoured to have won first place as it is the first time he has designed a product linked to a marine application. Mr Cann enrolled in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology under a dual master’s degree program and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2010. His years of experience with 3D printing stem from his past role in EUGENIO 3D where he engaged in both 3D printing and mechanical engineering. He is currently serving as a project engineer in Advanced Product Development in Eaton.
“In fact, I can already imagine derivatives of this vessel that are fully unmanned, more compact, without crew or pilot seats. It could be a real game changer for rescue vessel designs. Additive manufacturing in marine application will definitely bring more design flexibility, shorter lead times. Most structural parts can be directly manufactured on site, with one single machine. It allows high in-house manufacturing depth. That’s a dream for project leaders and engineers,” said Mr Cann.
2. Winning the Second prize of $20,000 was the team led by Matthieu Colin from Sofren Group from France.
SOFREN SAR New Generation
Sofren Group is an independent engineering and operational consultancy group based in France that specializes in the energy, process industries and infrastructure sectors (building, railways and maritime). They are spread over 10 sites in France with more than 750 employees with 15 years of experience in consulting and project engineering. Helmed by Matthieu Colin, the team comprises of Maxime Pachot, Thomas Abikhzir, Gaëtan Falc’hun, Antoine Matray, Brieux Voisin and Hugo Lauras.
3. Winning the Third prize of $10,000 is Mr Kelvin Xu from Kelvin Wave Pte Ltd
Mr Kelvin Xu is the founder of Kelvin Wave Pte Ltd, a registered ship design firm based in Singapore that engages in customized design of vessels and a range of end products consulting and project engineering. Kelvin has designed the KW5, an autonomous rescue boat which can fit inside a 20ft container and hold at least one person lying down with a total 8 personnel on board. The design has leveraged WAAM technologies which will allow for easy transport, installation on vessels, oil platforms and deployment in near shore rescue and for the human rescue in difficult waters.
Check out the video to hear what the winners have to say:
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