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MEETING CHALLENGE – THE WAY AHEAD
converted to larger versions through modification. The building of container ships gave
rise to a new definition for the size of the ship in terms of the number of containers they
could hold, TEU, which stands for the size of the container (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit).
The largest container ships built up to 2015 were the four ships constructed on behalf of
MSC (Switzerland) in South Korea with a maximum capacity of 192 224 TEU and a gross
tonnage of 193 000 tons.
The other significant trend in the construction of ships has been
manifested in the cruise ship industry that has seen a remarkable change
in the size of luxury ships with gross tonnages of up to 227 000 tons being
achieved.
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This has created considerable employment for welding personnel
in shipyards around the world, including the Meyer Werft GmbH shipyard
on the River Ems, Germany and the STX shipyards in Turku, Finland and
Saint-Nazaire, France. The latter produced the largest luxury ship to date,
Harmony of the Seas
,
for the US shipbuilder Royal Caribbean International,
when launched in 2016.
The pressing requirements of meeting time frames and sea trials have resulted in
modern assembly techniques using precise modular construction and the latest welding
techniques. Precise manufacturing, in this regard, requires production to very narrow
tolerances to minimise assembly costs and to achieve exact fit between individual modules
for pre-positioning. The use of laser cutting and welding has been indispensable in achieving
greater accuracy, higher rates of production and savings by the use of this technology.
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Additionally, robotic welding and cutting has become increasingly significant in lowering
labour costs and increasing productivity in the shipbuilding industry and would be expected
to be more so in coming years.
The size of luxury ships being constructed is ever
increasing