Impact of abrasives on productivity and quality in shipbuilding
3M will be at the Navalia fair a stand dedicated to several of its products, including its high performance abrasives.
In Shipbuilding, as one of the most important sectors that can be identified within the heavy industry and structuralists, welding processes have a great importance in the whole cost of the project (consumable and workload). In this sense, the use of abrasives becomes fundamental from the most primary phases of the hull construction, since it ensures the highest quality in the joint of the different elements.
In ship construction you can see different operations that are made with abrasives. Many of them are usually complementary to welding operations, but not all:
1. Plate preparation after oxicutting and/or plasma
2. Beveling of plates, stiffeners and bulb flats
3. Butt-plate joints: "retouch" between passes and root recoveries
4. Elimination of temporary elements
5. Stainless steel heat coloration cleaning
6. Oxides and paints cleaning
7. Rounding-off of sharped edges, with the target of improving the fatigue behavior of the ship and painting operations
All these operations represent a significant part in the cost of the ship and do not add value to the construction, therefore reducing these works to the minimum becomes critical. The net time of abrasive usage is between 15-30% of the whole structure construction time of a ship.
Cubitron TM II: PSG technology
A large part of these implemented improvements go hand in hand with the use of one of the most important technologies available to 3M in terms of advanced abrasive minerals, which is PSG technology (Precision Shape Grain), that comprises the trademark known as Cubitron TM II.
The trademark Cubitron TM II is the greatest exponent of the Precision Shape Grain (PSG) technology, which completely revolutionizes grinding applications. It consists on the development of ceramic abrasive minerals made of aluminum oxide with a triangular geometry, so they keep sharp edges along the entire useful life of the product, and therefore keep a constant cut power during the process.
This mineral can be found in different formats: agglomerated wheels (cut-off and grinding wheels), fiber discs (with external backup pad), flap discs, belts and even some non-woven products (Scotch Brite TM).
Navalia Fair
We will be at the Navalia fair with a stand dedicated to several 3M products, including our high performance abrasives. There will be daily demonstrations and also a technical talk about the influence of abrasives on the productivity in Shipbuilding, which will explain the influence of abrasives in each stage of the ship's hull construction (Thursday, 24 May from 12:00 to 13:00 hours in the CEPSA classroom).