Front foot
UBI Maior Italia supply some of the world’s most advanced custom hardware to the most demanding performance racers on the planet… looking back is not an option
Nearly everyone has heard of ‘3D printing’ or seen it in the movies: in some magical high-tech way, objects in three dimensions can be created directly from digital files with amazing accuracy. The users seem to effortlessly tap a few keys, the printing device hums and whirrs away, and “voilà”, an object appears that is ready to deploy.
The technology promises amazing results and has even resulted in controversy: for example, in the US, an advocate of guns rights has made available the digital files needed to produce an operable pistol that, when made of plastic, could be undetectable in most security scanners. Scary stuff.
But what is not scary and actually rather exciting is that the technicians at UBI Maior Italia have been working with this new technology – more properly termed AM (Additive Manufacturing) – in the realisation that soon metal removal would no longer be the only metalworking process done through a tool or head moving through a three-dimensional work envelope to transform a mass of raw material into a desired shape, layer by layer.
With AM technology, parts can now be made that fit unique niches in applications that would otherwise only be possible through more lengthy and traditional design and fabrication techniques. The
70 SEAHORSE
possibilities are quite exciting, and UBI Maior is one of the first marine hardware fabricators to bring this from the realm of technological fantasy to reality.
As with most custom and semi- custom manufacturing, projects at UBI Maior start with the customer and the concept. Listening is an important skill in the fabrication business, and once a problem is identified with the customer, a dialogue is established that clearly outlines the issues and the problems, the context of these issues, and then some brain-storming sessions to map out possible pathways towards a resolution of the problem. Sometimes this process leads to using an existing part in production or perhaps one that can be easily modified for use to solve the problem. Regardless, this path often leads to fast and cost-effective resolutions because the high quality in the engineering of existing UBI Maior parts is already built in. But when there is a unique need that can only be resolved through design and fabrication of new parts, this is where UBI Maior excels and is often asked to step in. ‘Our design team has several years of experience in using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) tools, so the process of transforming ideas into three
Above:
a UBI Maior 3D-printed, custom block can be made 20 per cent lighter while also having 20 per cent more
torsional
stiffness than the equivalent conventially machined block.
When the situation demands, the whole process from design to finished block can be completed in less than 24-hours
dimensions is well within our playbook,’ said UBI Maior project manager and engineer Vieri Abolaffio. ‘The added capability of having AM within our toolbox now both complements and enhances our existing CAD/CAM process. We can now be more efficient in building a prototype to examine, test, modify as needed and eventually produce in a reliable, safe and even cost-effective solution compared with traditional milling and assembly techniques.’ AM technology is not exactly new to the team at UBI Maior – they have actually been utilising its advantages for some time, but through an outside supplier. The demonstrated advantages, however, are now recognised to be strong enough that they have made the investment to take this fabrication, as well as design technology, in-house, which will further improve flexibilities and response times for their most demanding customers.
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