Naval Group and Centrale Nantes have used additive manufacturing to print the first full-size propeller blade demonstrator for military applications. Within the framework of the Marine Technology Joint Lab* launched in 2016, the Navy Group and the Centrale Nantes team printed a large geometrically complex propeller blade weighing more than 300 kg.
Through additive manufacturing, you can design parts that were previously impossible to manufacture using standard manufacturing techniques. This disruptive technique deposits (adds) material rather than mechanically subtracting material. By enhancing the constraints imposed by traditional processes, these technologies paved the way for innovative part design and assembly, paving the way for the production of propellers and providing greater efficiency for offshore vessels: performance (autonomy and propulsion) , invisibility and lightning. Vincent Geiger, director of the Naval Research Center for Naval Research Technology, emphasized the importance of these preliminary results:
Printing this demonstrator is an important step in the manufacture of innovative propellers through additive manufacturing. These preliminary results mean that short-term commissioning of short-term propellers can be envisaged for ships using them.
Professor Jean-Yves Hascoët is the head of the Centrale Nantes rapid manufacturing platform at Gera Labs (UMR CNRS 6183), an international expert in additive manufacturing. He explained:
Additive manufacturing is a process that offers endless possibilities: less material to use, additional functional integration and geometrically complex part assembly. It allows for new designs, reduces weight and reduces manufacturing costs.
Centrale Nantes has extensive expertise in industrial equipment and trajectory generation and additive manufacturing for blade production.
* Maritime Technology Joint Lab: The Maritime Technology Joint Lab was established in 2016. It is a joint industrial/research laboratory whose overall goal is to bring together the academic and industrial expertise of the Nantes Center, Nantes University and the Navy Group. Create qualified innovations for the Navy Group's industrial applications in the military shipbuilding sector.
