3D Printing: Navy Builds Up Additive Manufacturing on Ships
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.
Titan Acquires HII's San Diego Shipyard
One the United States' largest fleet service and ship repair sites is changing hands.Ship repair and commercial- and defense-related fabrication services provider Titan Acquisition Holdings announced on Wednesday it has reached a deal to acquire San Diego Shipyard from Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII). Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction, expected to close in the second quarter, is subject to customary closing conditions.The San Diego Shipyard, formerly Continental Maritime of San Diego…
US Navy: 3D Printing is the Way of the Future
On August 24, 2018, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) faced a problem that didn’t have a quick solution: A bolt from a hangar bay door roller assembly was stressed to the point of breaking, rendering the door unable to perform its basic task of opening and closing. In order for Chung-Hoon to get this one bolt, they would need to order a whole new roller assembly, which would take time Chung-Hoon didn’t have.Underway as part of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 3, Chung-Hoon was in close proximity to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C.
COA Making Sure Reefer Refrigerant the Real Thing
The Container Owners Association (COA) has had to develop a new global online database of refrigeration machinery repair companies, following 5 separate explosions that caused 3 deaths in 2011. Investigations into the incidents, which resulted in three deaths, concluded that the refrigeration machines had contained a gas other than the refrigerant R134a for which they were designed to operate on, which had created explosive gases inside the system. After testing samples from over 10…
Don Rodocker: The Man in the Sea
In the early days of subsea technology, there were a number of pioneers: men and women who stepped over the edge of what we knew about the underwater world. These individuals left the comfort of solid ground to explore beneath the waves and report back to the rest of us what they had seen. They pushed boundaries, raised the stakes and in some instances opened our minds to the possibilities. They were subsea visionaries. Today, those boundaries continue to be pushed, and undersea technology, now more than ever, is reaching new heights.
Verreault Navigation Dry Docks French Coastal Carrier
France's Verreault Navigation sees the vessel 'Georges Alexandre Lebel' through its scheduled dry-docking. The Georges Alexandre Lebel was in the Verreault dry dock from July 30, to August 4, 2012 for various steel work and machinery repair and maintenance programs. In addition to sandblasting and repainting the hull, the ship's starboard propellor shaft and rudder were dismantled, machined and replaced. One bunker fuel tank was cleaned by high pressure hose. The company felt sure it had kept to its promise to the customer by delivering a timely dry-docking on budget.
Chinese Repair Yard Reports Strong Results
In the past 3 quarters, 2004 witnessed the facilities expansion of Huarun Dadong Dockyard ( HRDD ) and also experienced the production turnover increase. Considering the trend that the more and more post panamax container vessel will be launched into service and with the advantageous geographical location in Shanghai port, HRDD improved her facilities within these two years. Positively speaking, by the mid of next year, HRDD will possess 3 floating docks for capacities ranging from handy size, panamax size to cape size vessels with particulars of 190m x 35m, 280m x 45m and 340m x 52m respectively. Of course, the biggest Da Dong floating…
The U.S. Navy - Reducing Shipboard Planned Maintenance
The cost of maintaining Navy ships is measured in billions of dollars and millions of man-hours. Requiring sailors to perform excessive, unnecessary, and often counter-productive maintenance does more than waste money. It also wastes that most precious of commodities — sailors' time. This problem is being addressed by the U.S. Navy through the Surface Ship Maintenance Effectiveness Review (SURFMER) program. Since October 1996, SURFMER has reduced sailor performed planned maintenance workload on surface ships and aircraft carriers by more than 35 percent. and more than 2.3 million man-hours annually. At the same time, it has improved sailors' quality of life — a top Navy leadership priority.
