Thermwood 3D prints a hull mold for a 51-foot long yacht

The manufacturer of large-format additive manufacturing solutions, Thermwood, has recently 3D printed several sections of a mold of the hull for a 51-foot long yacht. Using carbon fiber reinforced ABS, the company developed a part that was strong enough, demonstrating that additive manufacturing has a card to play in the marine industry. It’s not the first time they’ve been involved in this sector – in 2017, they printed a master mold that was used to produce several smaller boat hull molds. This application case shows how a single mold can be used for the fabrication of larger vessels, such as yachts.

Today, there are many ways to design large format parts: some companies invest in 3D printers with large plates, others in robotic arms capable of covering a larger surface area, while the majority of users go through a more or less long assembly phase. Despite the constraints that this technique can represent, it remains efficient for manufacturing larger parts – if we come back to the marine sector, you probably remember MAMBO, the boat that was 3D printed with fiberglass. As for Thermwood, it combines the XXL machine with the assembly phase, allowing it to create up to 51-foot long parts .

One of the 3D printed sections of the mold of the yacht’s hull (Image credits: Thermwood)

Thermwood explained that they used their smallest 3D printer, the LSAM MT, which offers a print volume of 10×10 feet, to design sections up to 5 feet high. They are then chemically and mechanically bonded using high-strength polymer cables to form two mold halves. These are then bolted together to form the complete mold for the yacht hull. These four 3D printed parts weigh over 4,012 pounds and require 65.5 hours of printing! The manufacturer chose carbon fiber-reinforced ABS for the whole assembly, a material that has a sufficiently high strength while being relatively affordable in terms of price compared to other composites on the market.