Intelligent Shipbuilding:Into the Main Battefield of Digital Transformation

By Kuang Zhanting

What technical route to be taken to promote the new type of industrialization and accelerate the building of a manufacturing and shipbuilding power? The consensus of industry experts is:taking intelligent manufacturing(IM) as the main direction.At present,accelerating the intelligent transformation has become an inevitable choice for China's shipbuilding industry to promote the transformation and upgrading,and realize high-quality development.From the initiatory automation equipment application and information technology (IT)promotion,to today,the intelligent trans for mation of China's shipbuilding industry has entered a new stage of development.

Application of IM equipment: improve production efficiency significantly

Inrecent years,China's shipbuilding industry has vigorously promoted the application of IM technology.At present,the IM technology has covered many links of the shipbuilding production process.In particular,the application of information production technology having extended from the automation equipment has brought the upgrading of production technology and the improvement of production efficiency,and injected new impetus into the high-quality development of the shipbuilding industry.

CSSC Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co.,Ltd.(SWS)and CSSC Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Limited (GSI),both subsidiaries of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited(CSSC),relying on their own high-end main shipbuilding products --large cruise ships and luxury passenger roro ships,with sheet block construction as the breakthrough point,have set up their own digitalized production workshops.

The intelligent sheet production workshop of SWS is 450 meters long and 111 meters wide,with overall floorage of 54,396 square meters.It adopted new equipment and new technologies including laser cutting and robot welding applied for the first time in the Chinese shipbuilding industry,realizing a complete coverage of 5G network,and they are key facilities for cruise sheet section structure construction and logistics with the most advanced technology and the highest automation,intelligent level and efficiency in China,filling the blank of shipbuilding sheet intelligent processing operations.Through construction of the intelligent sheet workshop,SWS has established a technical channel for design,construction,inspection and management.It has initiated intelligent upgrading and transformation with data-driven intelligent decisionmaking.Based on the furnishing of a large number of advanced intelligent equipments and unique core technologies,the production capacity of the sheet section is stable;through the application of information and intelligent technology of the sheet workshop,the construction cycle of the whole ship sheet section was subtentially shortened,the construction quality of the sheet section was significantly improved,and the quality and accuracy data all exceeded KPI.The practicability and expansibility of technologies including 5G technology application,equipment Internet of Things (IoT) and control,data drive and intelligent logistics broken through by implementing the project,and can be widely promoted and applied in the domestic shipbuilding domain.

GSI ship sheet section ＂digital smart＂ workshop covers an area of about 45,000 square meters,with a total length of 390 meters,including 1 flagment line,1 profile steel line and 2 section lines,separately equipped with laser composite welding panel station,cutting and marking station,longitudinal welding station,robot welding station among a series of advanced equipment.The whole assembly line is equivalent to a huge hull ＂sheet section printer＂,which can ＂print＂ 4.5 sheet sections per day,three times that of the traditional production method.It not only greatly improves the production efficiency,but also the welding quality is high and controllable.After it was put into use,the team of more than 200 people under the traditional production mode was reduced to about 50 people,and the cost of labor and quality were effectively controlled.

Similarly,with the ＂goingahead digital workshop scheme＂as the traction,CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Company Limited planned the digital application scenarios of the process technique,main equipment,site capacity,logistics,network foundation,business information interaction and other aspects of the key shipbuilding process.At present,the company has applied the steel sub-assembly robot welding workstation,aluminum sub-assembly robot automatic welding,hull small parts robot grinding workstation,profile automatic cutting device,unit assembly welding robot,plate cutting centralized control system among other equipment and technologies,as a result,product quality and production efficiency has been significantly improved.Among them,the unit assembly welding robot has successfully realized the multirobot coordination and automatic continuous welding of the unit assembly components of the hull,which were used in real ship construction for the first time in the industry.The scientific and technological achievements are evaluated as ＂the overall technology is in the international advanced level,and some technologies are in the international leading level＂.

CSSC Jiangnan Shipyard (Group)Co.,Ltd.established 5G IM innovation laboratory,digital shipbuilding laboratory,incubated a number of IM projects such as the crane code intelligent workstation,block section intelligent docking,digital subassembly production line,parts free edge intelligent chamfer unit,ultrahigh pressure CNC water jet cutting unit,profile welding surface primer automatic processing unit,and found application.The digital welding control system created by IoT technology has been able to manage welders through＂digit＂,dramatically reducing the welding quality problems caused by non-standard operation.

The out-field operation outside the workshop is another important part of the ship production process.Compared with the in-workshop operations that can promote intelligent transformation through assembly line equipment,the discrete characteristics of the out-field operation scene are more obvious,hence it is more difficult to implement IM.At present,the digital transformation (DX) of the outfield operations of China's shipbuilding enterprises is still in the initial stage,and they are focusing on the promotion and application of intelligent technology in key links and easy-to-realize links.

Based on the application of IoT technology,SWS has built the production auxiliary vehicles in the factory into production data stations,realizing real-time monitoring of operation status,accurate collection of operation data,and intelligent scheduling of auxiliary production operations.Process management datamation not only promotes the optimization of business process,promotes the progress from traditional extensive management to fine management,but also can further drive＂decision intelligence＂ through big data so as to deeply mine production data,then helping to improve the management level,reduce cost and increase efficiency.The company continues to explore the application of 5G intelligent terminals,digital technology and Internet+technology in the field of shipbuilding.Innovative technologies such as UAV ＂flight inspection＂ and AR remote inspection are applied to large cruise ships,container ships and other ships,which has been unanimously recognized by shipyards,ship owners,ship surveyors and employees.During the floating of China's first domestically-built large cruise ship in the dock,the UAV ＂flight inspection＂ technology helped to solve the problem that the water line was located at the flat bottom of the stern without reading the water ruler in a conventional way,which effectively promoted the progress of the large cruise project as planned.

Jiangnan Shipyard promotes the application of digital test container technology in the 24000 TEU container ship series products for the physical test container of the VLCS cargo hold,which is the key factor affecting the cycle of the dock and the wharf.Through digital simulation test container technology research and application,they realized the container ship scanning technology engineering application,and realized the cargo hold molding precision traceability and controllability.Thus realizing an important breakthrough in container ship construction including reducing multiple processes,improving the work efficiency and accuracy,technically realizing the change from the traditional real test container to digital container.

From informatization to digitization:promoting revolution of design and management

From the production line based on physical equipment,to the design,management and other principleoriented fields,it is another application level of intelligent technology.Starting with design,China's shipbuilding industry takes the breakthrough of industrial software as an important starting point to promote the penetration of IT into ship design,production management and other fields.

＂Ship Full 3D Design System HDSPD＂ of CSSC Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) CO.,Ltd.is the only Chinese HDSPD with independent intellectual property rights (IPR)independently developed by CSSC.Through the coverage of multiple stages of the ship design process,as well as the support of full professional 3D modeling and 2D drawing capabilities,it has realized the engineering design based on more than 20,000 industry standards and expertise,and supported the interactive design of massive models.The software has realized professional intelligent design,multiheterogeneous system integration,and digital drive of production line equipment,and has been applied to thousands of ships in more than 230 domestic ship-related enterprises and institutions.

At present,Hudong-Zhonghua established ship product digital design integrated platform(SPD system),ship full life cycle management platform (SPDM system),shipbuilding enterprise resource planning management platform (SMS system) and shipbuilding enterprises manufacturing execution management platform (SMES system),building an integrated platform with independent IPR for designing,manufacturing and managing ship products,forming shipbuilding software products with independent IPR centered on SPD system,supporting the whole process of ship product design,manufacturing and management and having the capability of outputting digital service to China's shipbuilding enterprises.

With the SPD system as the platform,supported by the knowledge engineering database and professional collaboration matrix,Hudong Zhonghua has created a business model of ＂one model cut-through＂,serving the whole life cycle of ship products from R&D,detailed design,performance and process simulation,production design and digital delivery.Not only is the main line of Hudong Zhonghua ship products business striding forward from traditional design to intelligent design,the digital business scene has also been applied and promoted in brother shipbuilding enterprises,leading the shipbuilding industry in digital transition as a whole.

In view of the construction needs of large cruise ships,SWS has developed a three-dimensional digital model platform (DMP-3D),addressing the practical problems of complex production preparation,complex construction process,large crosscollaborative operation,many design changes and high requirements for lean production data encountered in shipbuilding and offshore engineering projects.The platform has realized the design-application digitalization,complex business collaboration and unified data source through the 3D digital model platform.On the basis of the 3D digital model,it has taken the intermediate products such as block section,area and system as the object to meet the 5D digital twin (with time axis and marine equipment axis) in different dimensions.Focusing on large cruise ships and extending to other ship products,SWS has established and applied tools such as ＂design data bridge＂,＂civilian/offshore/cruise tray plan＂ information management system,SWS distribution logistics management system,SWS-TIME cable information management system and so on,to improve the controllability of product construction with digital technology.

In fact,most industrial software still lays emphasis on automation and informatization,that is,to solidify the best practices of the enterprise into process management and operation management system;and they need to better use data,mine the value behind the data,and combine with business,to bring data-based value innovation to the enterprise if further DX is to be achieved.This involves data management.In this aspect,Chinese shipbuilding enterprises are also exploring and trying,e.g.,the domestic industrial real-time database project jointly carried out by GSI and Tsinghua University and other units.We learn that the domestic industrial real-time database is based on Internet of Things Database (IoTDB) developed by Tsinghua University,which is a database management system software developed for the management of massive data in the IoT scenario,and is the cornerstone of industrial Internet construction.With the help of the domestic industry real-time database,huge amounts of data like library books placed orderly on the shelf,can more effectively use the ＂library＂ space,can also find the specified books at the fastest speed and sent them to the＂reader＂,can provide key support for storage and analysis of the shipbuilding industry data.

At present,the project outcomes have been widely used in informatization systems such as GSI energy control system,welding cloud management and control system and key equipment networking system.Among them,the Hongfan welding cloud intelligent control system has been put into online operation,the operator can see the real-time working status of all the welders on the screen,and realize the monitoring and management of the whole welding life cycle,and realize weld real-name system management,welding quality traceability,remote monitoring of welding process and welding big data analysis.In the meantime,it provides important support data for managers'assessment of personnel and equipment performance,welding process quality analysis,resource scheduling and optimization of production process,and operation and maintenance of equipment.In the future,domestic IoTDB will help GSI to realize the integration of shipbuilding production data,carry out the exploration and practice of ＂5G＂+industrial Internet and industrial big data with analysis,demonstration and application,build industrial data center to mine industrial data potential value,empower the shipbuilding industry with digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading,thus providing strong support for the shipbuilding industry to achieve high quality development.