ESG to Launch First Ship Designed with FORAN
Vessel 249 under construction at Eastern (Photo: SENER)
Rendering of vessel 249 detail designed with FORAN by ESG (Image: SENER)
Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG), a shipbuilder based in Panama City, Fla., is due to launch the HARVEY SUB-SEA in November 6, marking the launch of the shipyard’s first vessel designed with the FORAN CAD/CAM System developed by the engineering and technology group SENER.
The newly built multipurpose support vessel (MPSV) is the first of a series of two with a length of 103.7 meters, beam of 22.3 meters and depth of 8.92 meters. It is regulated by ABS/USCG/SOLAS DP2 DE Z-Drive MPSV and will operate in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for HARVEY Gulf International Marine.
SENER and ESG signed an agreement for the complete implementation of FORAN in June 2013. According to SENER, this was a challenging decision for the shipyard, which was accompanied with important changes to reinforce its design office with the aim of improving the overall design and production processes. FORAN was implemented in all design and production disciplines and was adapted to fulfill the U.S. shipbuilding practices.
Nowadays, with FORAN in several projects, the shipyard has improved its production time and quality, as ESG VP of Engineering, Fernando Malabet, recently explained, “Eastern Shipbuilding Group received a regulatory design package with minimal details and extensive areas to be defined and refined during the 3D development of the model. This task needed to be accomplished not only with experienced 3D modelers, but also allowing the naval architect to be part of the modeling process, this way filling in the blanks and properly complete the design of the vessel. This can only be achieved by using a software like FORAN.”
Malabet added, “FORAN not only cut the modeling time by 50 percent as compared to other software packages, but allowed different disciplines and people with different levels of training in modeling ability, to become part of the process, which made it more efficient, exact, and we had time to receive feedback from owners and production. Once the output presentation and process was agreed with the production side of the yard, with SENERS’s help we automated as much as possible the creation of nests and assemblies, creating a full package with a time reduction of about 25 percent in comparison with the time that it took with other Software packages.”
“Since the original packages from both design firms for Hull 249 and 234 were ‘regulatory’ only, ESG was able to complete the design and detailed sufficiently for production purposes with the use of FORAN, for all areas, structure, piping, electrical and outfitting, involving from modelers, 2D designers to engineers of various disciplines. From this model, structural as-builds will be developed showing a higher level of detail and accuracy than the original package contained. Finally ESG can say: basic regulatory design by VARD (vessel 249) or ROBERT ALLAN (vessel 234) and detail production design by ESG, thanks to the use of a fully integrated software like FORAN,” Malabet said.
SENER, who is collaborating closely with ESG, said it is playing an important role in North America and is making a strong effort to improve FORAN to help shipbuilding stakeholders to develop better projects and to be more competitive. FORAN celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015.
