With the support of advanced PEMA shipyard automation, BAE Systems Australia has been able to automate the installation and welding of up to 30 steel profiles a day for the Hunter Class Frigate Program.
Through Hunter, BAE Systems Australia, which is one of the largest defence and security companies in Australia, will deliver a formidable fleet of anti- submarine warfare frigates to the Royal Australian Navy. At the state-of-the-art Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia, modern and innovative manufacturing methods and automated and semi-automated equipment are changing the face of shipbuilding.
In 2020 PEMA shipyard automation machinery was delivered to the shipyard, which has helped the workforce boost production efficiencies and deliver better quality product, while also reducing the physical demands on people.
The equipment Pemamek has delivered is extremely capable, and by working together, we’ve further improved that to meet our demanding needs for the warship that we’re producing.
Tom Johnson, Manufacturing Engineer and Robotics and Automation Lead at BAE Systems Australia
Welding 30 steel profiles per day
Tom Johnson, Manufacturing Engineer and Robotics and Automation Lead at BAE Systems Australia, has been working with PEMA’s stiffener mounting welding portal (SMWP) for 30 months. Typically, each Hunter frigate requires more than 1,000 steel profiles.
Tom has been working with Pemamek’s Service Manager, Jonathan Österlund, to refine production efficiencies and reduce the manual work required by the workforce. With the support of one person, the PEMA SMWP can automatically install and weld up to 30 steel profiles a day, each up to 13m in length. Traditionally, this would be done by two people, achieving four steel profiles a day. According to Tom, software updates to the PEMA SMWP have further reduced the taxing, physical nature of the work – including getting the team off their knees.
”The alternative would be that workers would have to manually position and then weld each profile, whereas the SMWP saves manual handling and time on knees. That means fewer incidents and injuries, and the time saving is massive,” he said.
Tom said cultivating the supplier relationship has been really important for the program.
”We’re at the start of a multi decade program, so we’d like to keep the relationship and our future collaboration as strong as we can. The equipment Pemamek has delivered is extremely capable, and by working together, we’ve further improved that to meet our demanding needs for the warship that we’re producing.”
Hit the ground running
According to Pemamek’s Jonathan Österlund, his experience at the shipyard has been one of the highlights of his career.
”This is the first time I’ve been so involved in a program’s prototyping phase, and what we’ve been able to achieve together is to modify the machinery to deliver BAE’s preferred workflow,” Jonathan said.
”I’ve learned the people here are very good with automatization, and now, at the end of the prototyping phase, they understand the machinery almost as well as I do. Pemamek is always trying to find ways to make our machinery better and more efficient, so it’s a definite win-win situation for both companies.”
Tom said the improvements made to systems, processes, and equipment during the Hunter program’s prototyping phase will greatly benefit the warship construction phase.
”You’ve got to remember we’ve got a new yard, it’s a new build: there’s a lot of change and learning to be done. So, it means when we are approved for Batch 1, we can really hit the ground running.”
Construction on the first schedule protection block will commence in May 2023. This block and three more will be capable of being used in the first Hunter class frigate.
