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Digital blueprints replace paper ones once used for Navy refurbishment projects

Shipfitters overhauling the USS George Washington are laser-scanning the vessel’s features to allow maintenance projects to be developed on computers

There are a lot of moving—and nonmoving—parts on a 1,092-ft. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier like the USS George Washington. The 26-year-old ship, which is in drydock for an overhaul, develops 260,000 shaft horsepower and has a 134-ft. beam, a 257-ft.-wide flight deck that accommodates 85 planes, and quarters for 5,680 crew members.

Lots of parts once meant lots of paper blueprints. But not anymore, according to an article posted on the Defense One website.

When Newport News Shipbuilding built the Nimitz-class George Washington in the late 1980s, welders and shipfitters followed the specifications printed on “endless paper blueprints,” says the article. “Now, with the aircraft carrier back in drydock ... shipyard workers are laser-scanning its spaces and bulkheads.

“They’re compiling a digital model of the 104,000-ton carrier, which will allow subsequent Nimitz-class projects to be designed and planned on computers. That will help bring the shipyard’s carrier-overhaul work in line with its digital design-and-manufacturing processes that are already speeding up construction and maintenance of newer vessels.”

The shipyard’s executive team says digital technology is revolutionizing the way ships are designed and built.

“We want to leverage technology, learn by doing, and really drive it to the deck plates,” said the vice president of the shipbuilder’s in-service carriers, Chris Miner. “No drawings. [Shipyard workers] get a tablet. They can visualize it. They can manipulate it and see what it looks like before they even build it.”

The digital blueprints cut as many as six months from the typical three-year overhaul timetable.

The article also mentions that 3D printing techniques could further speed shipbuilding and reduce the number of spare parts brought aboard existing vessels. The Navy currently is testing an additively manufactured valve for use on ships.

Does a single valve mean that one day entire aircraft carriers will be 3D-printed? No—but it’s a start.

About the Author
FMA Communications Inc.

Don Nelson

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Don Nelson has reported on and been in the manufacturing industry for more than 25 years.