Laser Scanning Application for the Enhancement of Quality Assessment in Shipbuilding Industry

The need for a shipyard to improve the quality of its final products is crucial to be competitive in the shipbuilding market. In particular, in the latest years the attention has moved to reducing the presence and occurrence of dimensional non-conformities throughout the entire construction process, in order to facilitate and speed up subsequent phases and ship blocks assembly. This necessity has led shipyards management to evaluate the introduction of dimensional detection systems for the manufactured articles. As an innovative solution, laser scanning technologies have been already tested in extensive ways at industrial level and have recently found application in the shipbuilding sector. Specifically, among the various available technologies, laser scanner systems and laser trackers proved to be the most suitable ones for the targeted purposes. Within the paper, the authors firstly describe the evolution of shipbuilding process and highlight its peculiarities. Then, they focuse on the quality assessment process with a specific reference to both dimensional controls and laser scanning technologies that may support such operation. The application of the latest-generation tools is validated through the presentation and discussion of a real case study related to a ship block. Finally, the authors present the potential future developments and integration of laser scanning technologies within Industry 4.0 framework.