Additive manufacturing as a resource-saving alternative in the manufacturing process of marine gearbox housing

Abstract

ABSTRACT Marine gearbox housings are large components of several metres in length and tonnes of weight. The conventional manufacturing process is a time-consuming and elaborate process with the necessity to oversize the components from a load point of view. This results in a redundant amount of energy and resources for manufacturing. In contrast, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) offers the possibility to realize a load- and weight-optimized design and provides an energy- and resource-efficient alternative in the manufacturing of marine gearbox housings. It has been shown that this additive manufacturing process provides the potential of 41% energy reduction and 36% material reduction compared to the iron cast manufacturing process. This is due to the modification of the load flow and the use of the hybrid manufacturing production as well as the possibility to include bionic structures in the gearbox design.