5 Questions with Velum Nautica’s Lead Design Engineer – Bože Radan

Established in 2002, Velum Nautica is among the leading companies in the field of maintenance and repair of vessels. Out of their home base of Marina Kaštela in the Republic of Croatia, they specialize in all types of construction work on vessels. Their years of experience in the marine service sector and the use of modern materials and technologies means they can guarantee the quality of their work.

Employing a large-scale Massivit printer has put Velum Nautica a step ahead of their competition and Bože Radan leads their efforts for 3D manufacturing. As you’ll see by his answers below, Bože is thrilled with the value and concrete benefits that the Massivit printer has brought to their business.

Q&A with Bože Radan
Question #1: Has adopting a Massivit 3D printer changed your business?

“Most of our business involves repairs for vessels. However, often when a customer approaches us for a repair, they see the workmanship possibilities enabled by our large-scale Massivit printer, and then end up requesting additional, unrelated custom-built parts for their specific needs.”

“In addition, it can be impossible to find spare parts for very custom vessels. One of our customers recently told us he’d spent a year looking for a part without luck. Once the Massivit printer arrived, we simply printed parts onsite for them. So, it really saves us all a lot of time and energy in that regard.”

Custom ergonomic dashboard on vessel

3D-printed dashboard with fiber reinforcement

Question #2: Are there specific challenges that you’ve been able to overcome with your Massivit 3D printer?

“Definitely! A good example is with molds. Wooden molds cannot facilitate unusual designs or shapes. Now, we’re able to create any geometry at the click of a button. Also, with traditional fabrication technology we cannot ensure 100% symmetry for 2 parts. The Massivit printer is digital technology with an integrated slicer that provides automated file prep features which guarantee we end up with symmetrical parts, so we instantly overcome that issue.”

Question #3: How has your Massivit 3D printer affected your production as a whole?

“The first thing that comes to mind is the unbeatable production speed. We use our Massivit printer to produce molds within a few hours that would usually take two team members a few days to produce using wooden panels.”

3D-printed bowsprit

Question #4: Are there any other production benefits that you’ve experienced aside from speed?

“Well, the printer just allows us to do so much more at the same time. I mentioned being able to print a mold instead of having two team members manually produce wooden panels right? So those two workers are now free to work on other projects while the printer continues the work for them. This allows us to take on more work and more customers without sacrificing quality.”

“Also, the build volume of the Massivit printer means we can produce full-scale parts or molds without necessarily having to join them together. As you can imagine, this has crucial benefits for maritime parts as it means we can ensure they’re hermetically sealed.

Question #5: Are there any specific advantages to using a Massivit 3D printer in the marine industry?

“There are numerous, but I’ll mention two. First is the ability to create parts that are much lighter but also withstand the required minimum load. The 3D-printed parts serve as a base geometrical form. We can easily pass the required load by reinforcing parts with fiberglass or carbon fiber or Kevlar or internal expandable foam (note: the Massivit printer prints hollow) and maintain its seaworthiness.”

“The second, which I believe is unique to this technology, is the fact that Massivit printers create final products that are hollow. If we want to replace a vessel mast, for instance, it’s important for it to be hollow so we can run wiring through it. This makes it easy to protect the wiring and cables, which would otherwise be exposed to harsh conditions of the sea. Until now, radar masts have traditionally been produced using stainless steel which presents design limitations.. Additive manufacturing allows us to have the flexibility to 3D scan existing parts or to design a new custom part in CAD software and simply print it.”

Vessel mast in design software

Finished vessel mast in large-scale 3D printer

3D-printed mast mounted on vessel

Thanks Bože!

Thanks to Bože Radan for answering some of our questions! We’re thrilled to help Velum Nautica better service their clients and grow their business.

If you’d like to know more about how large-scale Massivit printers can help grow your business, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.