Joining processes are an important key factor for the competitiveness of European shipbuilders. They not only represent a significant portion of the total man hour consumption in hull production and outfitting, but due to heat distortions they also have a significant impact on nonproductive work operations, such as straightening and fitting. Those operations can interfere with on-board outfitting and increase lead time and construction cost. In addition to their contribution to shipyard productivity, joining techniques have a significant impact on material properties and thus on product performance and quality. Those factors become increasingly important for complex structures using comparatively thin and high-strength materials. Considering the importance of efficient joining, European shipbuilders in the past decade have invested significant efforts to develop new joining techniques, such as laser welding, adhesive bonding, and mechanical joining. Based on research results, practical industrial applications have been developed recently. After reviewing the impact of joining processes on competitiveness, the article will summarize a number of past and ongoing research projects with special focus on design methods, process and equipment development, fatigue strength of joints, quality assurance, and approval. It will then present a number of recent applications of new joining techniques in European shipyards. Finally, open problems and future research needs will be briefly discussed. The article is based on a joint effort of leading European experts and will focus on laser and laser hybrid welding, adhesive bonding, and mechanical joining
The complexity both of the product ship and the shipbuilding process make planning tasks in long, medium, and short terms difficult and lead to serious uncertainties. Discrete event simulation can be used to test and evaluate different scenarios in investment planning, scheduling, and resource planning. Using a virtual shipyard environment, the cost to find optimum solutions and the risk related to wrong decisions in the real world can be drastically reduced. However, due to the special skills and efforts usually needed to develop simulation models, the practical application of production flow simulation in shipyards is still rather limited. Object-oriented simulation tool sets specially developed for shipbuilding needs provide the chance to drastically reduce these efforts. Object libraries containing general and shipbuilding specific components with defined interfaces shorten the time needed for development of models for similar purposes. Furthermore, the integration of discrete event simulation models for certain shipyard facilities into a holistic model of the entire enterprise is made possible by using a tool set. Because of costs, some shipyards shy away from investing in simulation techniques. Networking activities and joint projects on simulation issues help to overcome those obstacles. German Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft already uses a simulation tool set successfully and actively cooperates with universities and other shipyards, while Center of Maritime Technologies has gathered experience in this field during participation in several simulation projects with other shipyards, for example, Jos. L. Meyer and Aker Ostsee. The article revues practical applications of simulation, gives an impression of how object-oriented simulation tool libraries can be structured, and outlines collaboration possibilities for making simulation applications affordable.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with đź’™ for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.