The presentation didn't really deal with NDT-specific subjects. Robert R. Hardison's presentation highlighted the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock technoloy. This is the largest private shipbuilding company in the US. Since 1995, it has built 800 ships and does about 1.9 Billion (US) annually. There are 18.000 employees. The company has had to deal with 30% drop in Navy orders since 1990. The steel factory is managed by CIM and the innovative process technology was bought from Danish Yard. Accuracy must be guaranteed within ± 1 mm and 4 mm alignment. Welding shrinkage is a major challenge. After the lecture Rolf Diederichs asked if online NDT was applied during the welding process - the answer was no. Yosi Bar-Cohen asked if health monitoring is applied after the ship leaves - again, the answer was no.  Robert R. Hardison |