Naval construction

Old naval construction

Old naval construction left us very little precise documentation on the techniques employed in the past.

Several means are used today to redécouvrir and reconstitute these techniques of antan, to better include/understand the evolution of the marine and the ships:

the naval Archeology, which consists in excavating according to the archaeological procedures the sites being able to conceal wrecks (sites of stranding or shipwreck, mudholes, ports filled…
the information retrieval in the Archives available throughout the world
the analysis of the old works, to deduce from them certain information delivered at the time of a report/ratio, of an activity report, a description of voyage or a specific state of a ship.

The model making of arsenal is based on this research to reconstitute models total or partial, on various scales, representing closest to what was practiced the details of design of the old ships.

Modern naval construction

Naval construction was often regarded as representative of the industrial capacity of a country, the more so as the naval military capacity played and plays still a great part in the power of a country.

After having been the force of the Western nations until the middle of the 20th century, commercial naval construction moved with the Japan in rebuilding with the beginning of the year 1960, then symbolized the industrial emergence of the South Korea in the years 1980. It becomes today the symbol of the emergence of the China as a industrial power.

This progressive displacement of the large shipyards towards the emergent Pays industrially is due also to the fact that this industry claims a very many labor whose cost, in the most developed nations, becomes noncompeting vis-a-vis the new arrivals with low wages.

European naval construction and Asian competition

Since the end of the second world war, naval construction in Europe was seen competed with by the Asian market. Japan then South Korea in particular - thanks to low costs of labor and very an good organization of work - became in less than thirty years the first manufacturers of ships, forcing the various large European building sites to specialize not to reduce their activity.

Thus, only the sectors of the construction of ships of passengers as that of the specialized ships remained the asset of the Italian, French building sites or Scandinavians, the Asian ones producing approximately eighty percent of the liners such as tankers or container ships.

Aujourdhui, European naval construction is vis-a-vis a new economic situation, and the work methods and managements must evolve/move to allow the survival of this sector. Indeed, Japan and South Korea on the one hand, having realized since end of the year 1980 of important progress on the point of modernization and the Productivity, and China on the other hand, becoming increasingly present in this sector, it becomes necessary for the European manufacturers to reorganize their work to remain competitive.

For that, alliance between great groups - such that Norwegian Aker Yards and the Chantiers of the Atlantic in France as well as the practice of subcontracting became a practice in Western Europe. It is what brings to hope that an increasingly close cooperation between the building sites of the east and the west of Europe, thus combining low costs of production to innovating and productive industries, will make it possible the old continent to remain competitive in the field of naval construction. Being given the importance of the maritime transport for the majority of the economic sectors in the European Union, it seems imperative to supervise the evolution this activity lasting the few next years.

Naval construction in the water sport

Wood still is very much used in the field of the pleasure. First of all used in a traditional way, it knew to adapt to the new synthetic adhesives then in the form of composite what in fact a very modern material.

Wood in him even is to some extent a natural composite. However several methods of implementation make it possible to obtain a light, relatively cheap hull (vis-a-vis glass fiber for example) while being freed from the old defects of wood like rotting or confrontation with the marine coprophages.

One counts primarily 4 approaches for modern wood:

plywood: requiring the use of sharp bilge, this method allows a hull heavier but less sensitive to punching,
moulded wood: implemented on a mannequin at the tightened grid, it is composed of several folds low thickness,
lathed wood: also named strip planking, it makes it possible to use the grid like second skin interior and thus a very light hull with aesthetically finished competing
the sandwich: a little the mixture all these approaches with a heart out of balsa timber end grained or foam PVC with folds or CTP.

Lastly, one cannot overlook the technique of impregnation into epoxy. It is a method patented by the Gougeon brothers under the name of WEST System, consisting in saturating the folds with epoxy resin wood.

See too

naval Repair, concerning the repair or the transformation of the ships.
naval Demolition, concerning the process of dismantling of the ships at the end of the lifetime.
Shipyard, the place, the company where these operations are carried out.

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