Singapore’s Mencast Marine has secured certification from Lloyd’s Register and the American Bureau of Shipping for its wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) propeller, which the two classification societies recognize as the first fully additively manufactured propeller. The work was done with A*STAR, building on a 2023 pilot that produced Singapore’s first 3D printed marine propeller with NAMIC and the Singapore University of Technology and Design.
Mencast’s system uses robotic arms to deposit bronze alloy layer by layer, replacing the sandcasting process the company had used since 1981 as Singapore’s only propeller designer, manufacturer and repairer.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Production time | Cut in half vs. previous process |
| CO2 saved per 200 kg propeller | 1,743 kg (36 per cent reduction) |
| Design iterations generated | 10,000+ within days, vs. ~20 in several weeks |
| Productivity gain (AI + additive, company-wide) | Up to 30 per cent |
The emissions saving is roughly equivalent, per the company, to driving an electric vehicle 9,500 km, about the distance from Singapore to London.
Class certification matters because ship operators and naval buyers won’t put a propeller into service without it. Dual approval from Lloyd’s and ABS lets Mencast bid outside Southeast Asia and Europe, and the company says it’s targeting larger offshore vessels and military platforms, plus a possible move into aerospace.
The milestone is narrower than it might sound next to the precedent: RAMLAB’s WAAMpeller, built with Damen, Promarin, Autodesk and Bureau Veritas since 2017, was the first class-approved 3D printed propeller, at 1.35 metres and 400 kg, but it was WAAM-printed then CNC milled to finish. Mencast’s claim is to a propeller that’s fully additively manufactured, with no finishing machining step specified. The UK’s D.E.E.P project has also printed a WAAM propeller blade section in Nickel Aluminum Bronze, claiming lead times cut by up to two thirds versus casting, with a full-size propeller still to come.