Remanufacturing and Suitability Study of 3D-Printed Shafts for Maritime Application Based on Finite Element Analysis

The fabrication of shafts often involves multiple machining runs/processes and advanced machining skills. The recent developments in Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies and materials offer a great alternative to conventionally manufactured parts, especially in maritime applications with limited resources. Although the laminar nature of additively manufactured, particularly material extrusion, parts limit its mechanical properties, AM's ability to quickly make customized and complex structural geometries offers more functional opportunities. Thus, its application in allowing an easy and cost-effective way to fabricate shafts (concentric and eccentric) is favorable, especially with the incorporation of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), which will provide first-hand simulation results for design optimization. In this study, the torsional stress and deformation for different types of shafts were evaluated using FEA. Also, the part was subjected to Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) using material ONYX™ (proprietary micro carbon fiber-filled nylon). The result shows the maximum stress and maximum deformation to be favorable at 0.05031 MPa and 0.00687 mm. Hence, a reference improvement method for the design of the concentric and eccentric shaft is proposed based on these analyses. An actual functional test is also conducted on the final prototype to see the effect on the actual running conditions.