NSRP Awards $11m for R&D Project Portfolio
The Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has selected a new round of 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. These new projects, valued at over $11 million, including cost share, were among those proposed in response to Research Announcement 13-01, issued in June. Abridged descriptions follow:
Laser Peening of Ship Structures to Reduce Production Costs
Hepburn & Sons, LLC |William Porter | Global Shift | Penn State Applied Research Laboratories | Ingalls Shipbuilding
Industry Investment: $425,000 | NSRP Investment: $478,000
Duration: 27 Months
Objective: The goal of this project is to transfer a cost-saving and quality-enhancing technology from the aerospace industry to the shipbuilding industry. The vision is to demonstrate the superiority of laser peening over select current shipbuilding processes in specific applications.
Learning and Development Innovation
Ingalls Shipbuilding
Industry Investment: $381,000 | NSRP Investment: $370,000
Duration: 24 Months
Objective: The objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate the tools needed to facilitate improved craft on-the-job training, improve management skills of new craft managers, and improve corporate memory retention during the transition to the current workforce.
spARky (Reducing Wiring Costs Using 3D Model and Augmented Reality)
Electric Boat | Bath Iron Works
Industry Investment: $560,000 | NSRP Investment: $560,000
Duration: 18 Months
Objective: The primary goal of this project is to use 3D CAD modeling and Augmented Reality to reduce the touch labor costs of wiring electrical components during construction.
Lifecycle Integrated Data Environment (LCIDE)
Newport News Shipbuilding | Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software (SPLMS)
Industry Investment: $1.1 million | NSRP Investment: $979,000
Duration: 24 Months
Objective: The goal of this project is to build a shipbuilding data environment in order to improve customer access to OEM technical data needed to support Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) and further enable the Navy in its efforts to move from a drawing centric to a data centric environment. It will develop a common graphical user interface for all stakeholders, develop a user friendly portal for Navy and stakeholder access, and provide an integrated data environment as a single source for accessing OEM data. It will also provide a framework for security access and configuration control of selected ship data.
Computer-Aided Robotics Welding (CAR-W)
Bollinger Shipyards | Ingalls Shipbuilding |NSWCCD | ShipConstructor Software| Wolf Robotics | Edison
Welding Institute | Purdue University| Colorado State University | Tony Maciejewski | Longview Advisors
Industry Investment: $2.7 million | NSRP Investment: $3.4M million
Duration: 24 Months
Objective: This effort will close the widening gap in the use of robotic welding automation versus foreign shipbuilders. This project will take a major step toward solving ‘THE’ critical bottleneck to the application of robotic welding technologies; automated robotic path and process solution generation (i.e. shift from manual offline to CAR programming).