Overview
Benefit Assessment of High Productivity Ultrasonic Assisted Drilling for Shipbuilding (2012-461)
Project Team:
- Edison Welding Institute
- Ingalls Shipbuilding
- Newport News Shipbuilding
- Bollinger Shipyards
2012
NSRP ASE Investment: $147K
Objective:
This project evaluated the potential benefit to shipbuilding applications from the use of ultrasonic assisted drilling (UAD) to shorten build time and reduce the cost of ship construction. A shipyard assessment was conducted to determine the types of metalworking systems used in the manufacturing of ship structures. An Ultrasonic Machining (UM) module was modified from its machining center variant to a system capable of being interchanged with Morse Taper spindle-based machines. The project successfully demonstrated the ability to apply UM technology to stationary and portable machining centers to achieve improvements in productivity by as much as 74.8 percent.
Key Deliverables:
Request Final Report from NSRP – Limited Distribution authorized to the U.S. shipbuilding and repair industry and NSRP ASE Program representatives