DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW AUTOMATIC THERMOFORMING SYSTEM FOR SHIP STRUCTURES (ITC-20133004)
The CONFORSHIP project is a large integrated experimental and strategic development project whose main objective is to achieve the effective implementation in the shipbuilding industry of a new automatic thermal forming system for obtaining complex curvature plates.
Currently, this operation is performed manually, which entails inefficiency, unpredictability and quality issues.
This implementation will be achieved through the development of enabling technologies consisting in:
- Numerical modelling of the heating system
- Integrated geometry control and measuring systems
- Automatic programming and closed-loop control systems based on predictive models and expert systems that will be incorporated into CNC equipment, resulting in a new machine concept and automatic forming process that would subsequently be exportable to other industrial sectors.
This project has been promoted by the C.N.P. FRREIRE and NODOSA shipyards together with the machinery manufacturer NODOSAFER, which leads the project in turn.
The participating shipyards will direct the integration of the different results and the validation of the technology developed in the shipbuilding industry environment.
The consortium also has the participation of a large company, COREMAIN, which specializes in software development as well as an SME that specializes, among other things, in the automation and integration of industrial processes, namely SYSPRO Engineering.
The heat lines to be applied in the sheets or the generation of the expert system based on the experience of the operators that enables the proactive correction of heat lines based on the actual behavior of the sheet as it is shaped.
This project has been supported by the CDTI, the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Galician Innovation Agency (AGI) and the Technology Fund.
