In 2021, China's shipbuilding completion volume, new orders received, and handheld orders remained globally leading. The growth rate of new orders is more than 20 percentage points higher than the global average. Shipbuilding completion, new orders received, and handheld orders accounted for 47.2%, 53.8%, and 47.6% of the world's total in deadweight tons, respectively, with an increase of 4.1, 5.0, and 2.9 percentage points compared to 2020.

In 2021, China completed 39.703 million deadweight tons of shipbuilding, a year-on-year increase of 3.0%. Undertaking new ship orders of 67068000 deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 131.8%. As of the end of December 2021, orders for handheld ships reached 95.839 million deadweight tons, an increase of 34.8% compared to the end of 2020.

According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global shipbuilding market will reach $186.6 billion by 2025. With the gradual increase in demand in the shipbuilding industry, the shipbuilding industry is experiencing vigorous development. The increasingly fierce competition has driven the market to improve its requirements for intelligent shipbuilding processes, safety, reliability, and quality of shipbuilding materials. Laser is known as the "fastest knife", "most accurate ruler", and "brightest light". Due to its high precision, high efficiency, and other characteristics, its technological application has occupied a pivotal position in the intelligent manufacturing process of the shipbuilding industry.

1. Laser cutting applications

Steel is a common material in the field of shipbuilding, and it is inevitable that ship steel will be cut according to the design of the hull. However, the cutting process requirements for shipbuilding panels are relatively high, and minor deviations, burrs, and other issues that occur during panel cutting may lead to accidents on the entire ship. Currently, in the shipbuilding process, the main cutting processing methods include flame cutting, plasma cutting, shear processing, and laser cutting. Flame cutting is often applied to thick plate cutting, limited to carbon steel plates, and cannot be precisely cut for plates below 4mm, with low cutting efficiency; Plasma cutting is suitable for all metal sheet cutting, but it also has problems such as high operating costs, easy slag hanging, and large deformation during sheet cutting. Therefore, the laser cutting machine with no impact on raw materials, high precision and high Factor of safety is gradually widely used in cutting.

2. Application of laser welding

In the field of shipbuilding, due to the high requirements for welding quality in the sheet metal manufacturing process and the multiple indicators for weld seam detection; The traditional arc welding, Submerged arc welding and other methods have certain limitations, while laser welding has obvious advantages.

At present, European and American countries have adopted a large number of laser welding technology in the intelligent manufacturing process of civil ships such as cruise ships, Roll-on/roll-off and special ships. The following figure shows the laser composite welding plate production line, stiffening plate production line, Roll-on/roll-off and special ship steel plate plane butt joint production line. From the hull deck welding diagram, we can clearly see the connection welding of the long side and the short side.

The application of laser welding not only makes a new breakthrough in shipbuilding technology, but also promotes the improvement of hull structure design to a certain extent. In addition, laser welding can flexibly form the construction materials of various modular cabins from plates, greatly reducing the construction time of the hull. In the manufacturing of civil ships, thin plates with a thickness of 3-12mm are mainly used for the processing and manufacturing of decks, cabin walls/partitions, cabin walls, and stair bases. Thick plates over 15mm are mainly used for the processing and manufacturing of ship hulls.

3. Laser cleaning applications

In the high-end manufacturing field, including shipbuilding, industrial products such as sheet metal must be cleaned of dirt, grease, dust, rust, and other pollutants on the surface of the product before spraying, welding, and assembly to ensure the quality of the workpiece. In order to meet the expanding cleaning needs of the industry, laser cleaning technology has emerged. Previously, sandblasting was the main method used for ship pre production cleaning, but it has gradually been banned due to its tendency to cause serious dust pollution to the surrounding environment. When using traditional shot blasting for steel plate treatment, when the walking speed of the steel plate is 0-6m/min, the surface roughness after treatment is 30-75 μ m. Shot blasting efficiency ≥ 100m/h; Using laser cleaning instead of shot blasting process can also verify whether the surface quality after laser texturing meets the coating requirements, cleaning efficiency, and production rhythm, which has more advantages. In addition, laser cleaning has advantages such as green environmental protection, no damage to the substrate, simple operation, time saving and cost reduction. With the continuous improvement of cleaning technology, it has gradually replaced traditional cleaning methods in many fields.

4. Laser Cladding Applications

The components used in shipbuilding require many special materials. These components are prone to failure forms such as corrosion, oxidation, and wear due to their frequent exposure to marine environments. According to statistics, about one-third of the materials in the shipbuilding industry are consumed due to friction and wear every year, and 80% of component failures are directly or indirectly caused by corrosion, wear, and oxidation. And if these components are not repaired regularly, they may cause huge harm, especially in key parts of ship generators, such as rotor shafts that require high accuracy and speed in operation.

Traditional repair processes mainly include ordinary electrode surfacing, spraying, and electroplating, but they have drawbacks such as large deformation, limited repair thickness, and easy coating detachment. In comparison, the advantages of laser cladding technology are significant, mainly including: ① laser cladding can generate a smaller heat affected zone on the substrate and reduce workpiece deformation; ② Metallurgical bonding can be achieved between the cladding layer and the substrate material, and the dilution rate of the cladding material is low; ③ The cladding layer has fine grain size and dense structure, which can achieve high hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and other properties; ④ Can achieve selective local fine repair, effectively reducing repair costs; ⑤ The adaptability of the powder material system is relatively high, and most conventional and special metal powder materials can be melted onto the surface of metal parts.

About HGTECH

HGTECH is the pioneer and leader of laser industrial application in China, and the authoritative provider of global laser processing solutions. We comprehensively layout the construction of laser intelligent equipment, measurement and automation production lines, and smart factories to provide an overall solution for intelligent manufacturing.

We deeply grasp the development trend of manufacturing industry, constantly enrich products and solutions, adhere to exploring the integration of automation, informatization, intelligence and manufacturing industry, and provide various industries with laser cutting systems, laser welding systems, laser marking series, laser texturing complete equipment, laser heat treatment systems, laser drilling machines, lasers and various supporting devices The overall plan for the construction of special laser processing equipment and plasma cutting equipment, as well as automatic production lines and smart factories.