Manufacturing System News

Protective tank coatings manufacturer Advanced Polymer Coatings (APC) announced an expansion of its factory, an investment central to its plans to increase its market share of the chemical and product tanker markets.APC President David Keehan said the renovation of its Avon, Ohio factory will almost double its size to 42,000 sq. ft., and a new automated manufacturing system will start production later this year, quadrupling manufacturing capacity of its MarineLINE protective cargo…

The U.S. Navy has long valued the potential of additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D Printing.AM refers to the depositing of material layer by layer to create an object. For the Navy, it’s not practical to carry every replacement part for every system on a ship, and it can be difficult to forecast if or when parts will fail. AM provides a flexible source of supply in being able to make parts instead of ordering them and waiting for them to arrive, especially for warships at the far end of the supply chain.

A U.S. shipbuilder’s piloting of new technologies is redefining the future of the naval engineering and shipbuilding industries.Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding division, in collaboration with the U.S. Navy, has led the adoption of additive manufacturing of metal components for nuclear-powered warships as part of HII’s digital transformation.This technological development will result in the first certified 3-D-printed metal part—a prototype piping assembly—being installed on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) early next year.

Huntington Ingalls Industries announced it has partnered with a company specializing in 3D printing technologies in a move that aims to transform naval shipbuilding in the U.S.Huntington Ingalls’ Newport News Shipbuilding division will work with 3D Systems to develop additive manufacturing technologies expected to accelerate the adoption of metal 3D printing for building components of U.S. warships.The joint effort, which comes amid a significant technological transformation underway at Newport News…

The last barrier to robotic shipbuilding has just fallen. What comes next will be truly exciting. It wasn’t too long ago that SSI and Wolf Robotics demonstrated some co-development which automatically drove a fully autonomous welding robot to weld several ship panels. SSI develops Autodesk based solutions for the shipbuilding and offshore industry including ShipConstructor software, an AutoCAD based CAD/CAM product line; and EnterprisePlatform, a tool for sharing product data model information. For its part, Wolf Robotics has been integrating robotic welding and cutting systems since 1978. The collaboration was part of a National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) Computer Aided Robotics Welding (CAR-W) project with U.S. shipyards.

The Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has selected four major research and development projects for award, as part of the program's continuing mission to reduce costs associated with U. S. shipbuilding and ship repair. Objective: Expanding upon the successfully completed Remote Climbing Robot and the current Mobile Robotic Manufacturing System, the objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate a High Mobility Manufacturing Robot capable of operating in ship compartments. Provide Design for Maintenance Training to U.S. Bollinger Shipyards |  Electric Boat | BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards | Marinette Marine | Hepinstall Consulting Group | Victoria Dlugokecki, P.E..

Konrad Marine has implemented its unique Total Gear Cutting System, a system which the manufacturer touts as a clear strategic advantage in the manufacture of its reliable sterndrive systems. The framework for the system is the Gleason Phoenix(R) II, 600HC - a modern bevel gear cutting machine. Highly specialized, integrated programming makes it one of only three in the world with its unique capabilities. Augmenting this framework and its programming with Konrad's experience in design, tooling, machining, and proprietary manufacturing processes creates the Total Gear Cutting System.

The Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has awarded funding for five new research and development projects to continue the program’s mission to reduce the costs associated with U.S. shipbuilding and ship repair. These new projects, valued at approximately $17.1 million in both Navy funding and industry cost share, were among those proposed in response to a May 2011 Research Announcement. The NSRP collaboration periodically funds R&D projects…

Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. is pleased to announce it will collaborate with Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) in connection with OPT’s proposed commercial-scale wave power generation project at Reedsport, Oregon. Lockheed Martin will provide design, manufacturing, system integration and supply chain management expertise to enhance OPT’s PowerBuoy® technology. This builds on previous work conducted by Lockheed Martin and OPT. This collaboration follows a $2.4 million contract awarded by the US Department of Energy (DoE) to OPT as part of US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s initiatives announced in September 2010 to promote the development of renewable marine energy.

Shell and China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) today signed a Global Alliance Agreement emphasizing their shared intent to pursue mutually beneficial cooperation opportunities internationally as well as in China. The two parties also signed a Shareholders Agreement to establish a Well Manufacturing joint venture (50% CNPC and 50% Shell) subject to further corporate and government approvals. It is intended that the joint venture will develop an innovative, highly automated Well Manufacturing System (WMS) that could significantly improve the efficiency of drilling and completing new wells onshore. The details of the parties’ respective contributions to the joint venture will be agreed during the transition phase over the coming months.

For more than 100 years Newport News Shipbuilding has held the distinction as one of the largest shipyards in the Western Hemisphere. The 550-acre facility, which is situated on a two-mile stretch along the James River in Newport News, Va., is best described as "a city within a shipyard," fully equipped to handle most any naval or commercial job, both newbuild and repair. MR/EN recently visited the yard to witness first hand how the world-famous yard utilizes more than a century of know how and an unmatched wealth of technical capability to get ailing ships — from "shave and haircuts" to complicated reconstructions — in and out, on time and on budget.

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) has awarded a multi-year contract for the manufacture and supply of propeller blades for the Canadian Patrol Frigates (CPF) to Dominis Engineering Ltd. of Ottawa. The contract calls for the supply of two ship-sets, with an option for the third set, for a total of 30 propeller blades. Dominis IPMS (Integrated Propeller Manufacturing System) uses the company's proprietary technology for CNC milling of sculptured surfaces to final form. This manufacturing system is used in the production of propeller blades, monoblock propellers, hydraulic turbines, turbine blades and impellers. The Dominis system has the capability to mill under computer control an entire part…

The National Shipbuilding Research Program – Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise (NSRP-ASE), the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) responded to continuing shipyard and Navy interest in Lean manufacturing by hosting a Lean Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Forum in Norfolk, Va. on May 11-13, 2004. The third forum to be held under NSRP’s Lean Shipbuilding Initiative (LSI), the event served to facilitate the advanced joint learning necessary to accelerate U.S. shipyards’ efforts to incorporate Lean Manufacturing principles throughout their operations. The deployment of Lean in U.S. shipyards directly supports the NSRP mission of reducing the cost of Navy ship acquisition and repair.