ship building, U.S. Navy
A ship builder for the Navy needed a 108” x 168” x 14ga high strength stainless steel sheet for a large project.
Steel mills only produce sheets up to 72” in width. There are even more limitations on the high strength stainless steel required for this part. The raw material had to be custom made to a width of 48”. Their biggest challenge was finding someone to manufacture the large sheet size.
We helped the ship builder by welding multiple sheets together to achieve the final size of 108” x 168". They had a difficult time finding someone to meet their challenges as there are only a few companies in the United States with equipment that can weld 168” in one pass. Our automated TIG process met all of the requirements after extensive research on welding processes, testing, and process approvals.
The ship builder’s problem of not being able to procure a 108” x 168” sheet was solved. The overall process including approvals took over 3 years. It was a very time consuming endeavor but well worth helping someone see their design take shape!
