Project Number: S2927

Project Title: Advanced Forming for Curved Plates and Stiffeners

Period of Performance: JUN24 – DEC26

Modern shipbuilding requires the fabrication of large structures comprised of complex, three-dimensional components of a larger scale than nearly any other industry. This project will address the manufacturing issues associated with three of the most challenging applications in the plate and stiffener forming area of Ingalls Shipbuilding. First, inserts (also referred to as spools or collars) are traditionally manually bump formed on presses and later welded into stiffeners or bulkheads. Since the inserts are manually formed, inaccuracies in their shape often lead to downstream repairs or rework. Second, complex shapes of non-ferrous alloys such as rope guards and fairwaters are currently fabricated utilizing a highly manual, multi-step process utilizing a press and tooling as well as thermal forming using a torch and water. The entire process is highly iterative, taking multiple days or weeks to achieve the desired final geometry, yet often still requires downstream rework. Finally, for many applications stiffeners must be formed to match the complex geometry of a ship’s hull. The common method for forming a steel stiffener is to cold roll the piece in a bending machine. However, this process is much more difficult for complex geometries. Inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the shape of the formed stiffeners result in increased rework downstream, where either buttering or trimming of the weld joint and/or additional forming and fitting is required to obtain a fit with acceptable tolerances.
The objective of this project is to increase efficiencies in the forming of inserts, stiffeners, and complex non-ferrous plates with the implementation of custom tooling and optimized processes. These optimized processes will produce consistent quality at generally higher speeds. Implementation will reduce downstream rework by providing better “first-time quality” results and reduce the overall fabrication time in the plate and stiffener forming areas.

Ingalls anticipates this effort will enable significant reductions in labor, rework, material handling, and increase throughput in the plate and stiffener forming areas. The anticipated benefits of this CNM project are expected to result in five-year savings of $2.4M for the DDG-51 Class destroyer and $3.9M across the combined platforms constructed by Ingalls (DDG, LHA, LPD). The corresponding 5-year Return on Investment (RoI) for the project is 0.78 for the DDG program only and 1.94 for the combined Ingalls platforms.

The project results will be implemented at Ingalls’ Pascagoula, MS, facility across the DDG, LHA, and LPD platforms. Implementation is anticipated to occur in the third quarter of fiscal year 2027.