The U.S. shipbuilding industry now confronts grave challenges in providing essential support of national objectives. With recent emphasis on renewal of the U.S. naval fleet, followed by the defense builddown, U.S. shipbuilders have fallen far behind in commercial ship construction, and face powerful new competition from abroad. This book examines ways to reestablish the U.S. industry, to provide a technology base and R&D infrastructure sustaining both commercial and military goals. Comparing U.S. and foreign shipbuilders in four technological areas, the authors find that U.S. builders lag most severely in business process technologies, and in technologies of new products and materials. New advances in system technologies, such as simulation, are also needed, as are continuing developments in shipyard production technologies. The report identifies roles that various government agencies, academia, and, especially, industry itself must play for the U.S. shipbuilding industry to attempt a turnaround.

The U.S. shipbuilding industry now confronts grave challenges in providing essential support of national objectives. With recent emphasis on renewal of the U.S. naval fleet, followed by the defense builddown, U.S. shipbuilders have fallen far behind in commercial ship construction, and face powerful new competition from abroad. This book examines ways to reestablish the U.S. industry, to provide a technology base and R&D infrastructure sustaining both commercial and military goals. Comparing U.S. and foreign shipbuilders in four technological areas, the authors find that U.S. builders lag most severely in business process technologies, and in technologies of new products and materials. New advances in system technologies, such as simulation, are also needed, as are continuing developments in shipyard production technologies. The report identifies roles that various government agencies, academia, and, especially, industry itself must play for the U.S. shipbuilding industry to attempt a turnaround.

Revised and updated (1st ed., 1988) to reflect current information and practice in the shipbuilding industry, this text/reference describes the principles and practice of ship production employing group technology. The system described is a mix of old and new techniques, aimed at optimizing producti

This textbook covers in detail digitally-driven methods for adding materials together to form parts. A conceptual overview of additive manufacturing is given, beginning with the fundamentals so that readers can get up to speed quickly. Well-established and emerging applications such as rapid prototyping, micro-scale manufacturing, medical applications, aerospace manufacturing, rapid tooling and direct digital manufacturing are also discussed. This book provides a comprehensive overview of additive manufacturing technologies as well as relevant supporting technologies such as software systems, vacuum casting, investment casting, plating, infiltration and other systems. Reflects recent developments and trends and adheres to the ASTM, SI and other standards; Includes chapters on topics that span the entire AM value chain, including process selection, software, post-processing, industrial drivers for AM, and more; Provides a broad range of technical questions to ensure comprehensive understanding of the concepts covered.