Blogger - Ashish Raj
From the time Noah built the ark, the shipwrights have not had much chance for innovation. The archaeological findings from Egypt show 75 feet long vessel hulls being built in pits (dry-docks for modern man) as early as 3000 BC. Even the floating dry-docks (tidal docks) were built in 2500 BC by none other than Indians.
The Harrappan civilization used shipbuilding as a strategic industry by building boats for foreigners (like flotillas for Alexander the great) and exporting teak for shipbuilding to Persia as well. Since then, there have been numerous changes in the type and style of vessels but the basic shipbuilding process has remained the same. We still dig pits, build the vessels therein and flood them out to sea.
Rolls Royce has suddenly changed the entire commercial ship-building landscape with its new ship-lift and transfer system. The shiplift is designed on the basic principle that a vessel requires floating only for a few hours after the months of building that goes into it. Using the shiplift and transfer system, the vessels are built on the numerous building berths and then floated out to the wet dock using the ship lift. The shiplift literally lowers the vessel into the sea via a lift run by hoists (ref the drawing below).
Some of the obvious benefits of shiplift include reduction in dry-docking time, multiple ship buildings with same initial capex, ultra easy capacity enhancement and even distribution of load on the building berth resulting in large savings in civil construction costs.
Though the concept has been here for some time, we have just started seeing it being developed for large and ultra large commercial vessels. If Indian shipwrights start looking at it seriously, it just might give them the extra advantage vis-à-vis the old Korean and Chinese yards and tilt the balance in their favor.
The Harrappan civilization used shipbuilding as a strategic industry by building boats for foreigners (like flotillas for Alexander the great) and exporting teak for shipbuilding to Persia as well. Since then, there have been numerous changes in the type and style of vessels but the basic shipbuilding process has remained the same. We still dig pits, build the vessels therein and flood them out to sea.
Rolls Royce has suddenly changed the entire commercial ship-building landscape with its new ship-lift and transfer system. The shiplift is designed on the basic principle that a vessel requires floating only for a few hours after the months of building that goes into it. Using the shiplift and transfer system, the vessels are built on the numerous building berths and then floated out to the wet dock using the ship lift. The shiplift literally lowers the vessel into the sea via a lift run by hoists (ref the drawing below).
Some of the obvious benefits of shiplift include reduction in dry-docking time, multiple ship buildings with same initial capex, ultra easy capacity enhancement and even distribution of load on the building berth resulting in large savings in civil construction costs.
Though the concept has been here for some time, we have just started seeing it being developed for large and ultra large commercial vessels. If Indian shipwrights start looking at it seriously, it just might give them the extra advantage vis-à-vis the old Korean and Chinese yards and tilt the balance in their favor.
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