Customer: Dutch shipyard
Industry: MACHINE CONSTRUCTION
Technology: innovatiQ TiQ 8 - industrial 3D printer
Material: PA-CF (carbon fiber reinforced polyamide)

Introduction/challenge
Development of a special lifting device in shipbuilding. A shipyard requires a customized lifting device for the assembly of pipe packages on board a new cargo ship. Standard clevis shackles do not fit, as the pipe packages have special attachment points with tighter radii and limited installation space.
Shackles with a modified pin length and special fork geometry are required, which are precisely adapted to the attachment points. Conventional production (forging or CNC milling) would take several weeks and incur high tool costs. The lifting device should first be tested in prototype tests before being approved for real load operation.

Solution
The TiQ 8 industrial FDM 3D printer from innovatiQ is used to manufacture the clevis shackles from PA-CF (carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide). Thanks to 3D printing, the shackles can be produced in their original size and tested after just a few hours.
The design is iterated several times: Adjustment of wall thicknesses, rounding to reduce stress and integration of material reinforcements in CAD.

Result

• Fast design validation: The shackles can be fitted directly to the lifting device and checked for fit.
• Load tests in advance: The printed shackle prototypes can be used to carry out practical tests (e.g. for 30-40% of the final load) in order to identify weak points.
• Cost reduction: Inexpensive plastic prototypes are used instead of expensive metalworking.
• Optimization before series production: The final version is only manufactured from high-strength metal after successful validation.

Conclusion
By using 3D-printed clevis shackles, the shipyard was able to reduce the development time of the lifting device from several weeks to just a few days and save considerable costs. Reliable additive manufacturing with innovatiQ's industrial FDM printers enabled flexible geometries, fast iterations and significantly reduced project risks.

Print example: clevis shackle

Printer: innovatiQ TiQ 8

Material: PA-CF