The Japanese Shipbuilding Industry Wants To Use Advanced Technology To Counter China And South Korea.

Under the current sluggish new shipbuilding market environment, Japan’s shipbuilding industry hopes to improve productivity with digital technologies such as information technology (IT) and virtual reality (VR) systems to improve work efficiency and make up for shortages of manpower. Shipbuilding industry competition.

       Government Funds Aid to Develop Digital Shipbuilding Technology

       The appreciation of the yen and the slowdown in economic growth have brought a heavy blow to the Japanese shipbuilding industry. After the new regulations on environmental protection pushed up orders for new ships, the number of orders received by Japanese shipyards this year has dropped significantly. Prior to this, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan introduced the concept of i-shipping to shipyards. This concept is the application of the Internet of things and big data technology to the operation and maintenance of ships. It can achieve the effect of integrating design, construction, operation, and maintenance through timely feedback and improve the competitiveness of products.

       Earlier this year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan launched a financial aid program that will provide 350 million yen (about 3.1 million U.S. dollars) in funds for the Japanese shipbuilding industry in the fiscal year to promote the development of the shipbuilding industry, such as Internet technology and the Internet of Things. technology.

       The Japanese government hopes to use this project to apply digital shipbuilding to increase the production efficiency of Japan's shipbuilding industry, bid farewell to the cost competition with China-Japan shipbuilding industry, and strive to achieve a 33% market share by 2025.

       The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan stated that in order to achieve the target of 33% market share, the Japanese shipbuilding industry must further strengthen its advantage of high productivity. Clarkson's data shows that at present, the Japanese shipbuilding enterprises hold a 23% share of orders in the global market.

       The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan plans to pass this project with the goal of increasing the workload of a worker to 250 GT by 2025, an increase of 50% over 2014, and thus again increasing the competitiveness of Japanese shipbuilding enterprises.

       At present, Japanese shipbuilding enterprises are developing technologies that include artificial intelligence automatic welding technology driven by 3D design solutions, laser technology for precision measurement, and application of integrated circuit tags and unmanned aircraft in the production management process.

       This trend towards automation can also help ship companies overcome the shortage of labor and the aging of the labor force. However, the old design problems in some Japanese shipping companies may make it unsuitable for digital construction technology.

       Major shipyards develop VR and AR systems

       It is understood that Japan’s Mitsui Shipbuilding is assisting the Japan Shipbuilding Technology Research Association to develop a system that can analyze the actions of workers. Several cameras installed on the job site will use the color and intensity of light to grasp what kind of work the workers are doing. These results will be combined with data generated by sensors mounted on workers' smartphones and radio frequency identification tags on communication ranges, welding equipment and other devices to determine the dynamics and location of workers.

       These data analysis results will help the shipyard reconfigure the operating procedures and arrange the equipment and industrial equipment, reducing the working time by up to 40%, depending on the shipyard. This system will be applied to the welding and polishing procedures when the steel plate components are connected.

       The Japan Shipbuilding Technology Research Association will invest 45 million yen (about US$448,000) in research and development expenses. The project will also involve Minamimura Shipbuilding and Sumitomo Heavy Industries. Japan Shipbuilding Technology Research Association consists of 185 groups and companies.

       Tsuneishi Shipbuilding is using virtual reality simulation to upgrade the painting process. Using large screens, 3D glasses, and spray guns, paint the hull virtual reality screen projected on the screen, analyze the job to determine if the coating is uniform, and feedback the results and improvement areas to workers.

       Tsuneishi Shipbuilding established evaluation standards related to this new virtual reality system. Tsuneishi Shipbuilding plans to reduce the coating cost of medium-sized bulk carriers. The cost for painting each IBC is approximately 60 million to 70 million yen.

       Fujitsu and other companies are developing augmented reality (AR) systems to support tanker construction. By using the camera of a smartphone or tablet to view the pipeline, workers can retrieve the installation location and procedures for the relevant pipeline, as well as other reporting data. An oil tanker contains 7,000 to 20,000 pipelines, and the new system can reduce the confirmation time of each pipeline from 10 minutes to about one minute, thereby improving the operating efficiency.