Additive Manufacturing in Shipbuilding and Marine Industry

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing is a rapidly evolving technology that is continuously emerging into a wide range of industrial and non-industrial applications which has the potential to ensure the sustainability of the business production process, and to contribute to the implementation of the circular economy. Over the last decade, a new promising field of additive manufacturing, namely 4D printing, has arose; it combines an appropriate advanced design and the incorporation of novel materials in order to enable the creation of an object that can alter its geometry over time in response to its environment, that is, a stimuli-responsive component.

This Special Issue of the Applied Sciences journal aims to target this challenging and emerging field where novel manufacturing procedures, based on 3D/4D printing, employing novel building materials and designs, meets marine technology for the on-site and on-demand manufacturing of components for the marine industry.

Researchers from both academia and the industry are invited to submit unpublished research work related to the additive manufacturing of marine components on board the ship and on offshore facilities (e.g., oil and gas platforms), contributing to the on-site and on-demand part of the fabrication, the smooth operation of the industry, with minimal to no waste, a reduction in the inventory, and the improvement of the supply chain.

The specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Design for Additive Manufacturing—DfAM (part consolidation, topology optimization, etc.);
• The adoption of 3D printing for marine maintenance and repair applications;
• Sensing devices/detectors employing 3D and/or 4D printing;
• 4D-printed stimuli-responsive devices;
• High-performance polymers and fiber reinforced composites;
• Novel building materials for 4D printing;
• Metal 3D printing;
• 3D-printed marine spare parts;
• The flexible production of customized parts;
• Traditional subtractive manufacturing versus additive manufacturing;
• The impact of additive manufacturing on the spare parts’ supply chain.

Original research or review articles addressing complementary areas, but which are closely related to the above, are also welcome for publication.

Dr. Dimitrios-Nikolaos Pagonis
Dr. Sotiria Dimitrellou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• additive manufacturing
• 3D/4D printing
• smart materials
• sensing devices
• spare parts
• multi-component parts
• metal 3D printing
• high performance polymers
• shipbuilding
• marine industry