Two Shipbuilding Initiatives Receive Funding

The Office of Naval Research announced today the selection of two Shipbuilding Initiative projects to receive a combined total of $1 million of Navy funding. Industry will contribute approximately $900,000 in cost share. The two funded projects are as follows: · Development of Advanced Steel Fabrication Processes for Naval Ship Construction, which will be performed by: Institute for Manufacturing and Sustainment Technologies (iMAST), Gulf Coast Region Maritime Technology Center, General Dynamics – Electric Boat Corp., and General Dynamics – Bath Iron Works Corp. · Hybrid Welding of Ship Structures, which will be performed by: Navy Joining Center, iMAST, Newport News Shipbuilding, Litton – Ingalls Shipbuilding, Litton – Avondale Industries, General Dynamics – Bath Iron Works Corporation, General Dynamics – National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., Bender Shipbuilding, Atlantic Marine, Inc., Meyer Werft, Caterpillar, Inc., Edison welding Institute, Dana Corporation, Convergent energy, and the University of Aachen. Twelve proposals requesting a total of $5.6 million in funding with an additional $1.2 million in proposed cost share from industry were submitted. The proposals were judged according to a published list of 11 criteria, including degree of impact on defined focus area and the potential for significant industry-wide impact.