Mon, 06 February, 2023
RESURGAM, a project aimed at introducing high productivity friction stir welding of steel to European shipyards, recently reached its 24 month milestone. Consortium members met in Limassol, Cyprus to host a seminar for industry, to discuss and disseminate findings from the project so far.
Recent updates from the project include Forth Engineering completing the first (non welding) trial with their underwater patch welding system, designed to weld a flat, circular patch of steel as a lap weld onto an underlying ship hull plate.
This was the first, semi-manual test to ensure the welding head would move around its track, stop, start, rotate, index up and down. For its deliverable weld, this will be done in the vertical plane, although trials are running horizontally at this stage. Ultimately, it will be fixed to a holding frame, which will then be moved into place against the ship side using a ROV.
Figure 1 Concept design drawings becoming a reality. (Images courtesy of Forth Engineering Ltd)
The ROV trials at the University of Limerick have also been a success, with the ROV successfully locating, aligning with, scanning and cleaning a simulated damaged hull plate in a quarry test pool. The next step is to repeat the same exercise at sea, aboard research vessel ‘Celtic Explorer’ or RV ‘Keane’, schedules permitting.
Watch the 24 month video below: