Creation of a fully 3D-printed boat hull

31 October 2025

  Link to video

As part of research in the field of large-format additive manufacturing, the #FLAB-3D print has produced a fully 3D-printed boat hull for the first time.

The demonstrator shows how complex hollow bodies can be manufactured robustly and watertight without support structures. The underlying parametric workflow was developed by Moritz Wesseler. It enables geometries to be fully automatically adapted to different printing parameters, slicer logics, and various LFAM systems – specifically for 45° extrusion and continuous toolpaths. The project originated as part of his cooperative doctoral studies at the Bundeswehr University under Prof. Josef Kiendl and the  Münster University of Applied Sciences / MSA | Muenster School of Architecture under Prof. Ulrich Blum.

The boat hull was manufactured on a CEAD Group Flexbot system as part of the dtec.bw project at the Institute of Lightweight Engineering - UniBw M, with support from laboratory engineer Tobias Herrlein. Subsequent watertightness testing was carried out in the Laboratory for Hydromechanics and Hydraulic Engineering with the support of Dr. Ivo Baselt.