In the category “SME IT Project of the Year” of the Computable Magazine IT awards, the project that produced the largest 3D-printed ship propeller in the world won this year’s award. This enormous propeller is the result of a collaboration between RAMLAB, shipbuilder Damen, IBM, M2i and the Universities of Twente and Delft.

In September of 2017, the collaboration between M2i and its partners produced the first and largest 3D-printed ship propeller in the world. This four-hundred-kilo propeller was printed at RAMLAB, a “field lab” with 3D metal printers based in the port of Rotterdam. UT researcher Dr. Wei Ya, who received his PhD via M2i in 2015, is working on this project together with UT professor Gert-Willem Römer.

Recently M2i has started another research project with RAMLAB and TU Delft on the Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) process, and in 2018 one more large project will start.