Laser cutting: A new tool for shipbuilding

Cutting steel plate from 3 to 10mm thick by the oxygen-propane process leads to severe thermal distortion in profile-cut components. This distortion makes ship prefabrication and welding very difficult and expensive. Laser cutting, however, is characterized by its ability to produce a clean edge with very low heat input, at high speeds. The way in which a laser cutting system was designed, evaluated, and subsequently built for large steel plate profile cutting in a small warship-building facility, to improve quality and to reduce production costs is reviewed.