Workshop Methods

There are different methods to give shell plates their final shape. The most commonly used method in traditional shipbuilding is to form the plate by contraction, that means, to force the plate to shrink by heating and cooling at suitable locations on the plate.

Alternative methods instead suppose that the plate should be formed by expansion, normally by applying ‘global’ or ‘local’ pressure in suitable locations on the plate.

There may be several steps in the forming process depending on the method used, for example,

• initial rolling

• heating/cooling

• applying local rolling or pressure

• checking the form with the aid of template and final adjustment

The AVEVA Marine Plate Development can be adapted to the different methods. As a result it supplies information, not only the geometry, but also other types of information needed by the workshop, for example, size of required raw plate, required contraction/expansion and its distribution over the plate, main directions of curvature

If the plate is formed by local pressing and rolling only (cold forming) the latter method may be especially adapted by assignment of the environment variable SBH_COLDFORMING.