In this paper, Finite Element Analysis was used to simulate ship hatch covers with different grid geometries viz. Square grid, Inclined grid, Diamond grid and Honeycomb grid. The entire finite element analysis results were generated by ANSYS® 2022 workbench environment. The hatch cover provides an air tight barrier protection for the cargo. For the present simulation the original hatch cover dimensions are used (21000 × 14000 × 300 mm). The principle objective of the present paper is aimed at proposing a light-weight material, so called glass fibre reinforced plastic material over the existing steel to reduce the weight for the cargo ship to improve the efficiency by reducing fuel consumption so that dead weight is downgraded. Glass fibre reinforced hatch cover also reduces man power for the process of handling the hatch cover. Based upon the finite element analysis outcomes of different grid geometries are Square, Inclined, Diamond, Honeycomb optimal core grid of hatch cover was chosen. A scaled down model of hatch cover using glass fibre reinforced plastic with an optimal grid structure has been also developed in this paper.

Additive manufacturing has been one of the most used techniques in the recent years because of its capabilities to fabricate complex structures as required by customer and industrial need from a 3D computer-aided design model without the usage of any tooling, dies and heavy machinery makes it a step ahead in the present manufacturing techniques. In the current study the author’s focus on the welding or joining of additive manufactured Polylactic acid (PLA) parts made by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). There are several techniques for welding these additive manufactured parts. This study mainly focuses on the joining of 3D printed PLA parts using a 3D pen and investigations on its mechanical properties experimentally. It is a very cheap and effective technique when compared to the other welding methods. This could overcome the drawback of small bed size in most 3D printers by joining smaller parts and it can also be used for repairing the defects caused during the 3D printing. Moreover the experimental testing of the mechanical properties also confirmed that the tensile, flexural and impact strength of 3D pen welded specimens retrieved above 70% of the strength to the original PLA specimen proving it to be a very effective method.