Production Applications 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.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has completed development of the "Mitsubishi Super Skiving System" for machining internal gears with high speed and outstanding precision. The new system has overcome technical issues characteristic of conventional skiving by use of an MHI developed, innovative barrel-shaped multiple-cutting-edge rotary tool (patent pending), enabling mass production of difficult-to-machine internal gears. In addition, longer tool life, combined with shorter machining times, enables significant reductions in production costs. MHI is aiming to commence marketing of the new tool and dedicated skiving machine in April, 2015.

Caterpillar Oil & Gas will unveil the new Cat CG137-8 natural gas generator set  at the Bismarck Civic Center in Bismarck, North Dakota during the 2014 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference  now in progress from May 20 – 22nd. The new Cat CG137-8 generator set provides 282 ekW (352 kVA), 60 Hz @ 1800 rpm of rated power, offering customers an additional power node to complement existing Cat power solutions in land production applications. The CG137-8 generator set will now be available to order from the global Cat dealer network. “The CG137-8 generator  set power node is a great addition to the proven Cat G3306B (135 ekW) and CG137-12 (400 ekW) oilfield generator sets, Russ Goss, Caterpillar Oil & Gas  new product introduction project manager said.

GE’s Global Offshore and Marine business powers and propels ships, keeping them in position at the touch of button. The Korean naval, offshore and merchant, shipbuilding industry, one of the largest and most important in the world, has long since recognized the benefit that GE’s experience and technology can deliver—partnering together for 30 years. That is why Kormarine 2013 is one of the key events where GE will showcase its latest advancements in diesel engines, gas turbines and dynamic positioning solutions, all designed to deliver reliability, fuel efficiency, lower maintenance and life cycle costs. SB Ahn, GE’s Global Offshore and Marine leader said, “GE provides solutions that affect vessels and marine installations from stem to stern and from ocean to sea bed.

Argus Subsea, which manufactures innovative subsea products for time-critical fields, announced the introduction of the AZ-15J subsea tree and wellhead system. Specially designed for jack-up mobile drilling units, the Argus AZ-15J is the world’s first purpose-built system that allows operators to drill and complete wells up to 15,000 PSI working pressure without special riser systems or cumbersome temporary abandonments. The Argus AZ-15J provides an easier installation experience for operators, which takes less manpower and leads to a safer, more cost-effective production applications than with conventional mudline suspension systems using wellheads adapted for horizontal or vertical tree completions.

In extending its adherence to delivering cost-efficient and safety driven technologies, DNV has introduced a new means of quickly and accurately determining steel thickness can speed ship surveys. It is especially valuable in inspecting old and corroded steelwork. Present-day methods, based on ultrasonic thickness measurements, are said to have dubious reliability on heavily corroded plates, and for large vessels are also considered too slow. The basic technological challenge was to transmit 100 percent of the signal energy through corroded steel plates, and receive and interpret the reflected signal to give an accurate thickness measurement. The basic principles of the new measuring method (half-wave resonance) have been known for 40 years.

Taylor Made Environmental has elected Ned Trigg to the position of international and domestic OEM sales director. Trigg will be responsible for all aspects of sales operations, including assigning OEM territories, OEM relations and coordinating requirements between sales and production, applications and engineering. Upon receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1987, Trigg joined Marine Development Corporation (MDC) as an applications engineer. Two years later, he became an OEM sales manager and called on key domestic accounts for over 10 years. In 1997 he was given the added responsibility of Southeast Asia.