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10 PREPARATIONS AND FABRICATION

10.1 AIMS OF THE LECTURE

a) To outline the tasks to be carried out for preparation and fabrication of plates and
sections.

b) To provide popular methods for preparation and fabrication of plates and sections

c) To explain the role of uses automation equipment for fabrication processes

d) To examine the use of machinery, equipment, and facilities for preparation and
fabrication of plates and sections.

10.2 MAKE UP OF SHIPS STRUCTURE

The structure of ships hull is built from plates and sections; they are welded from small parts
to large structure.

Before being welded the plates and sections have to be prepared through several treatment
and preparation processes.

The plates and sections are then fabricated and assembled to form large structures as units
and blocks. Illustration of the process is as follows:




















Figure 10.1 Plate and section
Figure 10.2 Sections welded on plate

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10.3 PLATES AND SECTIONS TREATMENT
When steel plates and sections come to the shipyard from the steel mill by means of truck,
train, barge, or ship and then stacked in accordance to their identities on the open air stock
yard. Due to handling and storing the plates and sections might bend, and rust, therefore
before being further processed they need to be straightened, cleaned through the following
flow:
a) In the stock yard
From the stock yard plates and sections are transferred to the treatment shop using magnetic
gantry crane for plates and mobile crane and sling or fork lift truck for sections, and by means
of roller conveyor plates and sections are directed to their designated treatment machines.

Figure 10.3 Panel
Figure 10.4 Block

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b) In the treatment shop

Plates are firstly straightened using roll machines or are also called mangles; this machine
usually has three top rollers and two bottom rollers, these rollers are also supported by several
smaller rollers. The gaps between the top rollers and bottom rollers can be adjusted to suit the
thickness of the plates. The plates are fed into the mangle and due to forces apply on the
surface of the plates they are straightened upon leaving the mangle.

Figure 10.5 Magnetic gatry crane
Figure 10.6 Roller conveyor

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After being straightened the plates are cleaned from rust and mill scale using shot-blasting
machine. Plates are fed on the conveyor horizontally into the shot-blasting machine; iron grits
are sprayed using pressurised spray guns onto both surfaces of the plates; the spray guns are
attached to the carrier that move right angle to the flow of the plates reciprocally. Upon
leaving the shot-blasting machine the plates are sprayed with water and after that with hot air;
the clean and dry plates are then transferred into the primer painting chamber to be
temporarily protected with primer paint.
Figure 10.8 Plate straightening machine
Figure 10.7 Plate straightening illustration

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Sections are usually not straightened but directly sent to the shot-blasting machine. The
process is more or less similar to the plate blasting and then the sections are also primer
painted.
























Figure 10.9 Plate blasting process
Figure 10.10 Plate blasting machine

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Figure 10. 11 Section blasting machine
Figure 10. 12 Plate painting machine

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10.4 PLATES AND SECTIONS PREPARATION

a) Lofting
In the conventional shipyards when the production drawings have been produced in the
drawing office the preparation works will follow start from lofting shop; it is a huge room
where the lofts men or markers translate the lines plan into full scale drawings as the
reference for making full size patterns of the ship components, and templates for fairing and
cutting the shell plates. In large and modern shipyards the lofting works are carried out by
optical marking that photographs small scale drawings of the ship to the steel plates.
Now with the advancement of computer system, most of the loft works can be directly carried
out from the drawing office in line with the production drawing tasks. Ship components data
are inputted to the computer and the dimensions of the plate are defined; the programme will
automatically nests the components in most optimum ways. The nesting data will be
transferred to the CNC cutting machine for planing, marking and cutting the plates.





b) Marking and Planing

At the preparation stage the plates are planed to obtain the right dimensions and to prepare
the edges using CNC cutting machine. Ship components are also cut on the CNC cutting
machine using the data transferred from nesting programme, sometimes marking is also
carried out either manually or using the same CNC machine to give identity to the
components plates which will be needed in the processes to follow.










Figure 10.13 Computer nesting results
Figure 10.14 CNC cutting machine

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Manual cutting using oxy-acetylene burner sometimes can still be found in some shipyards
for cutting simple sections. For larger beams CNC beam cutting machine may be used.


















c) Bending

For curved components some plates and sections need to be rolled or bent; Plates are usually
bent using rolling machine or pressing machine, and in order to obtain precision curvature
line heating are sometimes applied onto the plates; for brackets, knees and other specific
components flanging and swaging are carried out using pressing machine.


Figure 10.15 CNC cutting and marking machine
Figure 10.16 CNC beam cutting machine

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Figure 10.17 Plate rolling machine
Figure 10.18 Plate bending using press machine

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Sections and beams are sometimes also need to be bent, for this purpose hydraulic
section/beam bender machine is used, but in some small shipyards since the utilisation of
beam bender is relatively low, to minimise cost of investment curved beams are made from
welded plates.
Figure 10.20 Line heating principle
Figure 10.19 Plate pressing

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d) Profiling
Cuts on the ship structures are sometimes required, to produce these cuts profiling tasks are
carried out.
In modern shipyards where mass production approach is implemented multi-head CNC
profiling machine is mostly used especially when accuracy of the cuts is required, but for
small number and simple cuts manual profiling still can be found in small and conventional
shipyards.

















Figure 10.21. Section bender
Figure 10.22 Profiling machine

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10.5 SHIP FABRICATION
Fabrication is aprocess of joining paltes and sections to form simple structure.
Upon passing through the preparation processes the plates and sections are ready to be
fabricated into various simple structures before being further constructed into blocks in the
assembly shop.
During the fabrication plates and sections are welded together to form two dimensional
simple structure such as attaching stiffeners onto the double bottom floors and beam knees,
welding flanges onto the manholes or lightening holes etc., known as sub-assembly.
For larger sub-assemblies known as panels the fabrication is carried out in the panel lines
shop, the panels are then joined together to form blocks and units.
At the fabrication stage most of the works are carried out by welding, fillet welding in
particular. For simple and small parts manual electric arc welding is widely being used, for
large and repetitive tasks automatic welding are implemented.
a) Panel line
Panel line is a process of constructing flat or curved stiffened panels such as deck panels,
bulkhead panels etc. It normally contains a series of fabrication processes and operations for
producing of these panels.
The plates are first fed into the line, aligned, clamped and manually tack welded together.
The plate seams are then welded on one side and the plate turned over. The second side
seams are welded. Some panel lines use one sided welding technique and therefore no plate
turning is required.











The panel is flame planed to size and marked out for web and stiffeners which are to be
fitted. Stiffeners are pushed from the side, positioned, clamped and welded on the panel one
Figure 10.23 Plate turn over


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by one. The stiffened panel is then transferred to the assembly shop to be joined with other
components to form unit, or block.
























Special devices are usually used for supporting the plates joining process such as for fitting
and fairing aids as follows:
Wedge Devices
Threaded Devices
Hydraulic Devices
Pneumatic Devices
Gear-Pulley Devices
Magnetic Devices
Strongbacks
Jigs, Mocks and Fixtures

Figure 10.24 Plate flame planing

Figure 10.25 Panel


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Figure 10.26 Wedge
Figure 10.27 Threaded
Figure 10.28 Hydraulic Figure 10.29 Pneumatic
Figure 10.30 Magnetic
Figure 10.31 Strongbacks

Figure 10.33 Mocks

Figure 10.32 Jigs


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c) Modern approach in panel line
With the advancement of computerised mass production technology, many of world leading
shipyards have implemented automatic conveyor panel lines system, where robotic welding
are also employed in some shipyards. The system would normally consist of a series of work
stations dependent on the shape of panels to be constructed; in general it passes through the
following stages:
1. One side welding Gantry
The purpose of this gantry is to weld together two or more plates to make up panel.
Sometimes the gantry can weld different thickness of plates. The system consists of two
roller conveyors placed at the beginning and the end of the weld section. The gantry is
located in the centre and is equipped with an approaching and welding system.

2. Brushing and marking gantry
The purpose of this gantry is to mark the material surface in order to identify the welding
position for supports, squaring, boring, etc., Usually such operations are done semi-
autonomously by a group of tracing operators. The system envisages a computerized
console on which the tracing data has been previously inserted. Manual operations are
restricted to the actual panel positioning and gantry positioning. Marking can be done
either longitudinally or transversally with either paint or ink. Before marking, a brushing
or shot blasting system is placed nearby the marking area in order to clean it.

3. Transversal tack-welding gantry
The transversal tack-welding system is used to position the stiffeners before welding
operations take place. Such positioning can be done manually, semi-automatically or
completely automatically, while welding of such stiffeners is done manually. The gantry,
equipped with a magnetic material pick-up system especially designed according to the
various types of profiles and associated to an accurate positioning system, enables the
pressure system to provide safety and precision, thus facilitating tack-welding operations.
4. Automatic welding gantry
The automatic welding gantry will weld the reinforcements which have been tack-
welded by the transversal tack-welding gantry onto the panel. The gantry is equipped
with a trolley that moves parallel to the profile to be welded. The trolley houses two
welding heads as well as a joint-track system. The operator may insert the data for the
voltage and current values from the control console as well as continuous or block
welding. Various types of welding procedures (MIG-MAG, SAW) may be applied to this
gantry.
5. Longitudinal welding gantry
The longitudinal welding gantry is used to position the longitudinal stiffeners. This type
of positioning is normally done in manual mode due to the large number of stiffeners on
a panel. The gantry is in any case equipped with a rotating beam which picks up the
reinforcements, rotates them and positions them on the panel. Tack-welding and/or

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welding operations can be done manually in this station as well as in the succeeding
working stations.
6. Service gantry
The purpose of the service gantry is to facilitate all tack-welding or welding operations
on the panels or simply to complete those operations carried out previously. The service
gantry is generally equipped with 4 semi-mobile trolleys with controls and welding
torches. The welding rectifier is instead positioned on board the gantry which can move
down the entire length of the panel.



























d) Curved panels
The process of constructing curved panels is almost similar to the flat panels; the only
different is the utilisation of jigs or mocks for supporting the plates.
Curved plates are laid on the jigs or mocks which previously have been arranged to have
same curved pattern as the plates, the plate seams are butt welded (it is recommended that
one sided welding is employed).
Figure 10.34 Conveyor automatic panel line
Figure 10.35 Robotic panel line

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The plate is marked for the positions of stiffeners by the aid of templates, which usually have
been prepared in the mould loft. The stiffeners are then positioned, tack welded, and fully
fillet welded as on the flat panel.
In automatic panel line, curved panel is laid on the hydraulic movable bench, or on the jigs or
mocks, then robotic or computer programmed welding machines are employed to weld the
stiffeners and the webs.































10.6 CONCLUDING REMARKS

a) The structure of ships hull is built from plates and sections; they are welded from small
parts to large structure.

b) Before being welded the plates and sections have to be prepared through several
treatment and preparation processes.
Figure 10.36 Plate on jigs
Figure 10.37 Curved panels

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c) The treatment include: straightening, cleaning, and primer painting; and preparation
include: lofting, marking, nesting, cutting, bending.

d) Prepared parts are fabricated into sub-assembly and panels before being assembled into
larger structures.