AM Solutions wins Korea's first certification for LW-DED metal AM repair technology for ships and defense MRO

Korean Register (KR) awarded AM Solutions a manufacturing procedure certification for laser wire directed energy deposition (LW-DED) based metal additive manufacturing repair technology, the classification society's first certification covering damage restoration rather than new-part fabrication. KR presented the certificate July 29 in Busan, verifying the safety and reliability of using LW-DED to rebuild damaged sections of existing metal structures on ships and defense platforms. The framework, covering AM materials, manufacturing process, and product and procedure qualification, follows KR's revision of its additive manufacturing guidelines to align with the International Association of Classification Societies' Recommendation No. 186, adopted in 2025 for marine and offshore AM use.

Class-society qualification has been the binding constraint on marine AM adoption: DED and powder-bed processes can rebuild complex metal geometries quickly, but without a recognized procedure pathway, shipowners and navies could not return repaired structures to service. Extending KR's framework to in-service repair, rather than only newbuild parts, opens a shorter qualification runway than aerospace-style part certification, since a repair procedure is judged against a known parent material and defect geometry rather than a novel design. For defense fleets managing aging vessels and discontinued components, LW-DED repair offers a route to extend equipment life without waiting on obsolete-parts supply chains, a distinct value case from AM's usual pitch on new-build lightweighting or part consolidation.

The next signal to watch is whether KR extends the same procedure certification to additional AM Solutions sites or partner shipyards, and whether DNV, ABS, or Lloyd's Register issue comparable repair-specific frameworks under the same IACS recommendation. Buyers evaluating LW-DED repair should confirm which parent materials, thicknesses, and structural classes the certificate actually covers, since procedure qualification is typically scoped to tested combinations rather than blanket repair authority.