Revolutionizing workboat fabrication

A large percentage of the workboat fabrication industry is located along the Gulf Coast. A visit to anyone of them would likely reveal an antiquated fabrication process that has been used over the last 70 ago. The workboat manufacturing process is expensive, labor intensive, and hasn’t changed a great deal since WWII. It may be time to resign the manufacturing process from the bottom up. A new solid-state welding process for aerospace technologies is being developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in North Alabama. It can reduce costs and decrease manufacturing schedules. Although NASA welding development focuses on the aerospace discipline, many applications exist for these same solid-state weld processes in the maritime industry. (Source: Marine Link 09/14/18)