Welding and cutting aim for high efficiency and high quality

Welding and cutting are among the most critical production technologies in the shipbuilding industry, and the equipment related to welding, cutting, and quality inspection is also the main process equipment for shipbuilding enterprises. During the 2008 China Shipbuilding Industry Development International Summit Forum, the advanced shipbuilding welding, cutting, and quality inspection technology forum received significant attention from professionals in the shipbuilding sector. Welding: Focus on Efficiency Chen Jiaben, the director of the Shipbuilding Professional Committee of the China Welding Association, presented a report on 'Progress in Chinese Shipbuilding Welding Technology' at the forum. According to him, the application rate of CO2 gas shielded semi-automatic welding technology in Chinese shipbuilding enterprises has reached 60% to 65%, with over 40 types of shipbuilding welding processes applied in the construction of various vessels; the average daily consumption of welding materials per welder in the shipbuilding industry reaches 15 kilograms, and the usage of single-sided welding backing pads reaches 700,000 meters, with the application rate of efficient and energy-saving welding equipment exceeding 95%. Advanced and efficient welding technology has played an important role in improving shipbuilding efficiency, reducing shipbuilding costs, and enhancing shipbuilding quality in China. Chen Jiaben pointed out that in the field of ship welding equipment and materials, a large number of advanced welding materials and equipment have been localized, and rectifier AC/DC arc welding machines and inverter arc welding machines are continuously being developed and applied. At the same time, to meet energy-saving and environmental protection requirements, major backbone ship enterprises in China have eliminated energy-intensive and heavily polluting acetylene gas, replacing it with propane liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas, while low-toxicity and low-dust welding rods are being further promoted, and energy-saving inverter welding power sources are replacing high-energy-consuming rotary arc welding power sources. Although laser welding technology is not absent in China's shipbuilding industry, the project for developing high-power laser construction technology for ships in cooperation with Germany was launched in 2005. Chen Jiaben stated that to meet the needs of efficient shipbuilding, by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan, the mechanization and automation rate of welding in China should reach 70%, the first-pass welding quality acceptance rate should improve by more than 5%, welding costs should decrease by 5%, and the average daily consumption of welding materials per welder should increase by more than 20%. He believes that to achieve these goals, ship enterprises should adhere to the direction of regional modular construction, the direction of refined welding management, the direction of welding standardization, and the direction of leading welding research and development. Cutting: Pursuing Automation Senior Engineer Yin Haopeng from the Shanghai Shipbuilding Technology Research Institute pointed out in his report on 'Automated Thermal Cutting Solutions for Modern Shipbuilding' that in recent years, to meet the needs of modern shipbuilding, a series of advanced automated thermal cutting technologies, such as CNC flame cutting, CNC plasma cutting, CNC pipe intersection cutting, and robotic profile automatic cutting, have been introduced into the shipbuilding industry, fundamentally breaking through the bottleneck of material cutting that has troubled shipbuilding cycles, becoming a booster for the rapid growth of China's shipbuilding output. Regarding the current application status of automated thermal cutting technology in China's shipbuilding industry, Yin Haopeng stated that in plate cutting, CNC plasma cutting has become dominant, and CNC laser cutting machines have also appeared; in pipe cutting, large and medium-sized ship enterprises have adopted automated cutting equipment; in profile cutting, only some key ship enterprises are equipped with automated cutting equipment, while most ship enterprises are still using manual cutting methods. After introducing the current development status of advanced automated cutting technology in the global shipbuilding industry, Yin Haopeng suggested that China's shipbuilding cutting technology and equipment should develop towards flexibility, digitization, and integration. When introducing advanced cutting technology, ship enterprises should focus on cutting speed, bevel quality, and deformation values to meet the subsequent assembly quality and welding quality requirements of the workpieces.