A new collaboration between Flinders University and ASC Shipbuilding will bring advanced manufacturing to the Hunter class frigates in SA’s new digital shipyard.
The new partnership will set up a digital test and trial laboratory as part of Flinders University’s advanced manufacturing research facilities based at the Tonsley Innovation District in SA. In the laboratory, researchers, ASC Shipbuilding and suppliers will be developing and testing the technologies that future shipyard workers will use at the new digital shipyard, currently under construction within the Osborne Naval Shipyard precinct.
The partnership will bring together the latest technologies from industries such as mining, automotive and construction and they will be adapted, trialled and tested to suit the Hunter class frigate’s design – specifically for prototyping, which commences in December 2020.
Managing Director of ASC Shipbuilding Craig Lockhart said that applying digital technology in a ship building facility will require a fundamental shift in how the industry has traditionally operated.
“We are establishing a world-leading shipyard right here in Australia – it will mean autonomous ground delivery vehicles, paperless work orders, cobots, laser scanning and projection, virtual reality and, part and tool tracking, just to name a few technologies,” Lockhart said.
“We are so pleased to partner with some of Australia’s leading researchers at Flinders University to help us create an efficient, safe and productive shipyard which provides long term careers for future workers that are exciting, challenging and rewarding.”
“Our expertise in industrial transformation will bring tangible benefits to the frigate project, one of the biggest defence investments in the nation’s history," Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling said. "Industry 4.0 is vital part of the digital transformation underway in manufacturing and this new research partnership with ASC Shipbuilding will help to solve the real world challenges faced in a modern shipyard.
ASC Shipbuilding will be part of the ongoing development at the Tonsley Innovation District as the centre of advanced manufacturing research in SA and home to Flinders University’s Australian Industrial Transformation Institute.
An in-depth look at the Hunter class frigates by Deputy Editor Nigel Pittaway, first published in our October 2019 edition, is available here.