{"id":96,"date":"2011-02-24T12:58:03","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T02:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/?p=96"},"modified":"2025-06-29T21:37:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T11:37:01","slug":"cost-savings-in-the-manufacture-of-aluminium-ships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/cnc-routers\/cost-savings-in-the-manufacture-of-aluminium-ships","title":{"rendered":"Cost savings in the manufacture of aluminium ships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aluminium has been widely used by most marine countries for commercial and naval vessels since the mid 1950s, and numerous current Navy ship classes use substantial amounts of aluminium.<\/p>\n

While there may have been a time when legitimate concerns existed about the use of aluminium in naval ships, those concerns have largely been eliminated through technology advancements including production equipment like CNC aluminium flatbed routers.<\/p>\n

While the material costs of building a ship are only 1-2% of the total cost of the ship* major costs are associated with the manufacturing of the ship. Today\u2019s advancements in manufacturing with aluminium, however, are offering significant cost savings, and making aluminium ships in parity with steel ships.<\/p>\n

Improved productivity<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

ustal and Incat are just a few among aluminium ship builders who use automated aluminum routers which have been specifically designed for processing aluminum sheet and plate, on process areas up to 20 meters in length by one of the world\u2019s most advanced manufacturer of CNC routers and plasma cutters, Advanced Robotic Technology (ART).<\/p><\/div>\n

Shipbuilders such as Austal are implementing additional improvements in the production of aluminium ships \u2013 involving router cutting, work kitting, complex extrusions and welding \u2013 that will significantly improve productivity and reduce costs in the future because labor is the highest cost in building a ship with aluminium.<\/p>\n

Austal, Palmer Johnson and Incat are just a few among aluminium ship builders who use automated aluminium routers which have been specifically designed for processing aluminium sheet and plate, on process areas up to 20 meters in length by one of the world\u2019s most advanced manufacturer of CNC routers and plasma cutters, Advanced Robotic Technology (ART).<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s range of aluminium routers offers rigid cutting with high feed rates, inkjet part numbering and alignment marking, an in-built swarf transfer system and high-powered liquid cooled spindles. ART aluminium routers reduce production time and material wastage for shipbuilders, increasing profit margins.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we installed the two ART router machines (10000SX and 19000SX) four years ago, we exclusively used plasma cutters,\u201d Alan Pedley, Workshop Coordinator at Austal\u2019s Henderson shipyard, says. \u201cBut plasma cutting can be very messy and dirty as there is a lot of heat involved during the cutting process. So we were looking for alternatives and also a way to monitor and analyse our machining processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the alternative was delivered by ART, specialising in the manufacture of extremely large scale profile cutting machines able to process aluminium plates up to 20m \u00d7 2.8m \u00d7 73mm. \u201cBecause we deal directly with the customer, we are able to maintain constant communication with the end user,\u201d David White, ART\u2019s Director, explains. \u201cCustomer feedback is one of the vital links that keep ART in front of the crowd. Many of the features that are included in our current line of machinery have origins dating back to customer suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that is also true for the tangential ink head included in the CNC routers installed at Austal, Western Australia. The aluminium ship is assembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle, and the profile cutter produces finished components directly from the sheet or plate material, including fold lines, welding positions and part\u00a0 numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile our old plasma cutters had a line marker, it was not capable, however, to mark text,\u201d Mr Pedley says. \u201cThe router prints with a speed of 15m\/min, more than double the speed the plasma cutter was capable of. Moreover, the amount of afterwork has been dramatically reduced with the automatically marked parts ready to go straight off the machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well-built, rigid structure<\/h2>\n

One of the most prominent features that set ART\u2019s SX routers apart from the crowd is their well-built structure for heavy-duty applications, with rigid bearing mounts and gantries made from 9 up to 16mm steel plate.<\/p>\n

Moreover, all routers use Advanced Robotic Technology’s very own ProfileShop controller software. ART ProfileShop is compatible with industry standard G-Code and NC Code, and is also compatible with most tool path generation software.<\/p>\n

Mr White explains how ART supports its customers to be more efficient and competitive. \u201cTo decrease production time we offer our integrated tool changing system. The 10-tool linear bar allows our routers to complete highly complex jobs, using multiple tools with no user interaction, fast, clean and safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aluminium has been widely used by most marine countries for commercial and naval vessels since the mid 1950s, and numerous current Navy ship classes use substantial amounts of aluminium. While there may have been a time when legitimate concerns existed…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1,14],"tags":[38,37,34,35,32,31,33,58],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-applications","category-cnc-routers","category-ship-building","tag-advanced-robotic-technology","tag-aluminium","tag-cnc-machine","tag-cnc-machining","tag-cnc-plasma","tag-cnc-router","tag-cutting","tag-ship-boat-building"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1318,"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/1318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.advancedrobotic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}