National Shipbuilding Research Program. Proceedings of the REAPS Technical Symposium. Paper No. 6: Semi-Automatic Pipe Production in a Small Shipyard.

摘要

Proceedings of the REAPS Technical Symposium. Paper No. 6: Semi- Automatic Pipe Production in a Small Shipyard. This paper has been written with the small shipyard in mind, and to comment on its approach to large new piping systems incorporating the latest developments in production equipment and computer aids. Small yards face a common problem when confronted with large systems together with their associated software packages and extensive hardware requirements for both computers and production equipment. The obvious common problem is the volume of throughput and the need to generate sufficient savings to justify the level of investment required. Even if theoretical savings were sufficient, it is unlikely that a small yard would have sufficient resources to successfully incorporate all the changes in one step. In recent years a number of small yards have introduced large computer systems for N.C. steelwork (eg. Autokon System) by taking a step by step approach to its installation, and it is appropriate that their attention should now turn to the next largest labour intensive process in ship construction - that of pipework. Recent changes in pipework processing range from the fully automatic integrated systems, through various levels of semi-automatic systems with computer aided design or computer aided construction.