Project Number: S2794

Project Title: Adopting GMAW for Robotic Panel Line Fillet Welding Operations

Period of Performance: APR19 – JUL24

The Department of Defense (Navy) budget continues to strain to meet new goals for fleet size and increased acquisition activity. An acquisition cost goal set by the Navy has been to reduce the construction costs for CVN 78 Class aircraft carriers. A major portion of the strategy to achieve this goal is through the use of technology insertion to reduce fabrication costs.
This Center for Naval Metalworking (CNM) project determined the advantages of converting legacy equipment from a robotic flux-core arc-welding mechanized (R-FCAW-ME) process to a robotic gas-metal arc-welding mechanized (R-GMAW- ME) process. The project team compared the current baseline welds to the welds fabricated with the R-GMAW-ME process.
Edison Welding Institute (EWI) developed and evaluated the parameter sets, with additional technical insight and feedback provided by Lincoln Electric to optimize the R-GMAW-ME system. The project will transition to the shipyard for testing in a representative environment in a follow-up project. Once Huntington Ingalls Industries – Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) completes shipyard evaluation activities and the process achieves successful results with project expectations, NNS will develop positive supporting documentation to implement the R-GMAW-ME process using capital funding.

If the project achieves its threshold labor reduction goal, NNS anticipates an estimated CVN five-year savings of $3.8M beginning the second quarter of FY2026.

Upon acceptance of both the technology and associated business case by the acquisition program office, the results will transition to the NNS facility. NNS anticipates implementation in the second quarter of FY2026.