Development of Support System for Ship-Hull Plate Forming Using Laser Scanner

In this study, we developed a new system that outputs the additional press work procedures necessary to obtain the desired ship-hull surface. This study is unique in terms of determining the additional press work procedures required according to the current plate shape at any work stage by measuring the plate shape using a laser scanner. In the proposed method, a B-spline surface is constructed from a point cloud measured using a laser scanner, and the current plate shape is analyzed based on differential geometry. Additional press lines are estimated based on the difference in the normal curvature along the lines of curvature between the designed target surface and the current surface. We demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed method through experiments at a shipyard. The proposed system may be used to enhance the efficiency of press work and is expected to be an effective tool for training beginners in the future.

Effects of inductor patterns on temperature and deformation behavior of ship hull plate by induction heating

This paper mainly investigated the effects of different inductor patterns on thermal forming behavior of ship hull plate by moving induction heating. Alternately-coupled electromagnetic-thermal analysis procedure considering temperature-dependent material properties was firstly implemented at each moving step of inductor, followed with uncoupled thermal-mechanical transient analysis to obtain corresponding thermal deformation. Then temperature distribution, dimensions (breadth b and depth h) of heat-affected zone, and deformation obtained from codirectional current-carrying inductor with no gap and opposite-direction current-carrying inductor with gap were compared, respectively. And effects of heating directions and distance T2 of ODIG were also analyzed. It turns out that codirectional current-carrying inductor with no gap can generate much larger transverse shrinkage at 1.8–2.5 mm/s than opposite-direction current-carrying inductor with gap, otherwise smaller at 3.2–4.0 mm/s, likewise larger temperature gradient at 1.8–4.0 mm/s and thus larger bending angular deformation. Besides, heating direction “Out” can generate larger deformation than “In” and deformation for opposite-direction current-carrying inductor with gap can be effectively improved through adjusting distance T2 until 13 mm. These indicate that adopting appropriate inductor patterns, heating direction and distance T2 of opposite-direction current-carrying inductor with gap can significantly improve thermal forming behavior.

Effect of Coil Width on Deformed Shape and Processing Efficiency during Ship Hull Forming by Induction Heating

The main hull of a ship is made up of a large number of plates with complex curvatures. Line heating is one of the main approaches used in the forming of a ship hull plate. Because line heating is based on manual heating using a handheld oxyacetylene gun, the typical heating width is extremely narrow. With the development of computer control technology, a newly developed automated plate forming equipment is available and its heat source is typically an electromagnetic induction coil. The temperature field and the induction coil size are correlated. However, investigations into the induction coil size are scarce. In this study, the effect that the induction coil width has on both the forming shape and processing efficiency is investigated via simulation and test. The results show that a moderate expansion of the induction coil width at different input powers has an insignificant impact on forming shapes that is attainable by common line heating. However, as the heating width expands with the expansion of the induction coil width, the number of the processing lines via line heating is reduced which improves the processing efficiency.