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21st to 23rd of May 2024

Nautilus, the JRU founded between Navantia and AIMEN, improves the development of advance technologies to manufacture military vessels

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Since the beginning of their activity, in 2018, until today, the teams have launched several of the work lines contemplated in the Joint Research Unit and new lines of great interest for both entities have been opened.

Nautilus, the Joint Research Unit between Navantia and AIMEN, improves the development of advance technologies to manufacture military vessels. Nautilus pursues two fundamental objectives: on the one hand, the development of Advanced Manufacturing Processes and, in particular, automated / robotic systems for the first phases of ship manufacturing (sheet metal forming and welding of pre-panels and panels) and, on the other hand, the development of Products with Higher Added Value, an objective that will propose new solutions in the area of materials (lightening, shielding and protection against corrosion). Six actions or projects have been proposed in order to get those objectives that will work on:

1. Welding operations robotization on naval elements and structures
2. Laser-hybrid technology for panel welding
3. Automatic sheet metal forming through line-heating
4. New steel and composite compound systems for ship repair and shipbuilding
5. New solutions for armour-plating
6. New advanced systems for cathodic protection

Since the beginning of their activity, in 2018, until today, the teams have launched several of the work lines contemplated in the Joint Research Unit and new lines of great interest for both entities have been opened.

Throughout the year, two new secondary lines have been added: One of them is the development of collaborative environments that has been integrated in the line of welding robotization in naval elements and structures and another of them is the line of solutions for the reinforcement of susceptible areas (welded joints) in metal shields that has been integrated into the line of armour-plating solutions.
The technical advances in which the JRU team has been working this year are as detailed below:

• Design and virtualization of the prototype cell.
• Design of components that will make up the prototype cell.
• Start-up of the imaging system for the development of a collaborative robot-operative environment.
• Development of tests to determine the most appropriate welding technology for the manufacture of panels: The ideal welding parameters for welding have been determined by laser-hybrid processes (assisted by MAG) and PMC process.
• Development of tests to determine the influence of electromagnetic induction on the most representative materials used in Navantia.
• Development of laboratory tests to determine the most suitable multi-material solution to apply in the selected demonstrator (Frigate F-110 door).
• Study and documentary and normative analysis on which multi-material solutions will be developed as alternatives to the metallic materials currently used in armour-plating solutions.
• Simulation, validation and optimization of a passive cathodic protection system have been carried out on a scenario case parallel to that of the F-110 frigates (SPAR for Offshore wind generators), with which very promising results have been obtained, and that it will use as a simulation-base model in the elaboration of the active and passive cathodic protection systems of the F110.

Financing
The Nautilus initiative, framed in the aid program for the creation and implementation of joint research units, is funded by the Xunta de Galicia through the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN) and is supported by the Department of Economy, Employment and Industry. In turn, it is co-financed by FEDER Funds under axis 1 of the Feder Galicia 2014-2020 operational program. (Ref. IN853A 2018/03).

Source (AIMEN)

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