The International Labour Organization (ILO), in its newly released World Employment and Social Prospects: Trends to 2023 report, predicts that global employment growth in 2023 will be only 1%, less than half of the 2022 level (2.3%), and even zero growth in North America. In such a tough employment situation, three Princeton University graduates emerged from the adversity. They saw the opportunities presented by innovation and technology and partnered with UnionTech to find market opportunities using their unique and creative 3D printing technology to stand out from the fierce competition in the market.
Unbroken - New Demand for Innovation
Flux Marine, founded by these three college students, is a marine power system company in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, focusing on outboard engines for marine leisure, professional and application fields. The shipbuilding industry they were in once had solid market rules - it was difficult for emerging ship engine companies to enter the industry due to financial and technical barriers, and they were monopolized by a few brands for many years, which kept ships high in cost and long. In the face of the advent of the environmental protection era, ship engines have new demands for cleaner, more efficient, quieter, lighter weight, etc.
Ship engines made by Flux Marine ride on the sea
Faced with this new market demand, the three graduates opened up a new market for marine power systems through technological innovation, integrating electric motors with solid-state components, achieving zero emissions by improving performance parameters, minimising carbon emissions, virtually eliminating maintenance, reducing noise, reducing air and water pollution, and improving transport efficiency.Flux marine is the first company in the world to achieve a true replacement for oil-fuelled engines, which has been favoured and pursued by capital.
Deep integration of the shipbuilding industry and UnionTech
As technology continues to advance, additive manufacturing technology has brought brand new opportunities and breakthroughs to the marine industry. Flux marine has introduced UnionTech's light-curing 3D printing technology, which has successfully solved the pain points of the marine industry, greatly accelerating the company's R&D costs and iteration speed. They have successfully solved the following pain points using light-curing 3D printing technology from UnionTech:
1. Cost Advantages
The traditional ship manufacturing process requires large inputs of labour, equipment and materials, resulting in high costs. Additive manufacturing technology, on the other hand, adopts a layer-by-layer stacking approach to manufacturing, which greatly reduces the waste of required materials and lowers production costs. In addition, through personalised production, the hassle of large-scale inventory is avoided, further saving money.
2. Efficiency Advantage
While traditional shipbuilding can require long design and production cycles, additive manufacturing technologies enable rapid design and production, significantly reducing this cycle. Production lead times are dramatically reduced as there is no need to create complex moulds and tooling. Designers can use CAD software for rapid modelling and directly translate the design into an actual product. In addition, multiple additive manufacturing machines can work simultaneously to achieve mass production, further increasing production efficiency and meeting customer demand for rapid delivery.
3. Design Innovation
Ship design is complex and diverse, and additive manufacturing technology offers designers greater freedom. It allows innovative design ideas to be transformed into actual products directly through 3D modelling software, without the limitations of traditional manufacturing methods. This permits better optimisation of the ship's appearance, functionality and performance to meet customers' individual and customised needs.
4. Lightweight Design
Conventional shipbuilding often uses a large amount of metal materials, making the vessel too heavy. Additive manufacturing technology, on the other hand, can produce hulls from composite materials or lightweight metals, resulting in a lighter structure, improved fuel efficiency and sailing performance. At the same time, through optimised structural design, additive manufacturing can also enhance the structural strength and safety of the vessel.
5. Sustainable Development
Environmental protection and sustainability are important concerns for society today and challenges for the marine industry. Additive manufacturing technology uses recycled and renewable materials to reduce energy consumption and waste emissions. In addition, through lightweight design and optimised structures, the fuel efficiency of ships can be improved, reducing the negative impact on the environment and achieving the goal of sustainable development.
6.Stable Delivery
Traditional processes are subject to a high degree of human interference, so delivery schedules fluctuate from time to time. UnionTech's light-curing printing equipment can continuously complete the printing operation, and with more than twenty years of accumulated kernel stabilisation technology, it can realise black-light production, avoiding the interference of artificial factors and guaranteeing stable delivery.
Ship parts production process using UnionTech light-curing 3D printing technology
UnionTech Builds Additive Manufacturing Solutions for the Marine Industry
With features such as large format (1400 x 700 x 500mm), precision stitching, high speed scanning, and dual lasers, the RSPro1400 enables the printing of large prototype parts and high volume custom production. This innovative industrial-grade 3D printing machine is tailor-made for high-quality, large-scale prototype samples. One-shot, no splicing is required, which ensures faster manufacturing speeds while improving quality, more accurate product detail and environmental friendliness.
UnionTech's additive manufacturing solutions for the marine industry have greatly accelerated the company's research and development costs and iteration speed for Flux marine, helping more clean and efficient vessels travelling the vast seas and setting a new benchmark for the marine industry.
