Samsung Heavy Industries has developed a laser high-speed welding robot, aimed at substantially enhancing the productivity of constructing LNG carriers, a ship type which the Korean yard has record numbers to build on its orderbook.
The new technology specialises in quickly welding membrane panels used in the cargo holds of LNG carriers. These membranes are made of thin stainless steel layers that come into direct contact with the ultra-low-temperature liquid natural gas.
Compared to traditional plasma arc welding (PAW) methods, which take approximately five minutes to weld a 2 m long membrane panel, the new robot completes the task in just one minute and comes at a time where the Korean yards are struggling to source suitable numbers of qualified welders to work on record-sized orderbooks.
The welding length of the membrane panels of the four cargo holds mounted on one 174,000 cu m class LNG carrier stands at 60 km, which according to Samsung Heavy is equivalent to the straight line distance from the capital Seoul to the port city of Pyeongtaek.
Developed by Samsung’s Production Technology Research Center, the laser high-speed welding robot rotates the laser beam at precise intervals and speeds.
The technology also features defocusing capabilities to adjust the focal point and a laser displacement sensor to automatically locate curved welding positions.
“The laser high-speed welding robot will become a core technology maintaining overwhelming competitiveness in the key process of building cargo holds in LNG carriers,” said Choi Du-Jin, the head of Samsung Heavy Industries’ Production Technology Research Center. “We plan to expand its application to the cargo holds of ultra-low-temperature liquid hydrogen carriers in the future.”
The Geoje shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries in the far southeast of South Korea has the largest orderbook backlog of all individual yards globally today at 11m cgt – about 9% of the global orderbook – and 17.9m dwt, according to the latest statistics from Clarksons Research.
