Provided - Keppel Offshore & Marine

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATIONWeld doneKeppel Singmarine continues to enhance its operationalproductivity through automation and mechanisation.A robotic welding machineis giving a boost to KeppelSingmarine’s productivity.Compared to when pipe spools arefabricated manually, the use of thismachine helps to reduce theman-hours needed by 25%.The adoption of this machine in2012 resulted from a study done bya team of engineers from KeppelSingmarine over the previous year.As part of the study, the teamvisited Kranendonk, a specialistin robotics for the offshore andmarine industry in Holland.The robotic welding machineis able to fabricate four to fivestraight pipe spools – measuringone inch to 10 inches in diameters– in an hour. The machine onlyrequires one operator.Keppel Singmarine is in the process of incorporating robotic applications to its steelcutting and fabrication processesIntegrated with the ComputerNumerical Control (CNC) bendingmachine, straight pipe spoolswelded by the robotic weldingmachine can be bent readily. Thisreduces usage of elbows in pipespools fabrication, hence reducingman-hours used for production.As part of Keppel Singmarine’squest for continuous productivityimprovements to its operations,the company is also in the processof incorporating more roboticapplications to its steel cuttingand fabrication processes. Theseenhancements are expected tobring about a 14% reduction inman-hours per annum.The robotic welding machine at Keppel Singmarine uses 25% less man-hours comparedto the manual fabrication of pipe spools16OffshoreMarine March – April 2013