The visiting group took a bus to the new factory area of Fangfang Shipbuilding. It was a large flat open-air working yard. From a distance, everyone saw many half-finished, basically completed, and just started laying keel ships lined up neatly on the shore.
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"Do you still undertake the ship-breaking business?" Hikawa Okamoto asked, puzzled.
The ship-breaking business was not easy to develop in the 1990s. This is because many of the first batch of ships built after World War II had just begun to reach the end of their service life. Without scrapped ships, there would naturally be no business.
In another ten years, the ship-breaking industry will explode.
Yao Yuan glanced at Hikawa Okamoto and said, "We are a shipyard, not a ship-breaking yard. Besides, Mr. Hikawa, can't you see that this is building a new ship?"
"Building a new ship on land? Mr. Yao, you are really joking." Hikawa Okamoto shook his head with a smile.
There is no problem with small boats. After they are built, they can be moved into the water with mobile devices, but big ships cannot do it because there are no such big cranes and no mobile devices that can carry thousands or tens of thousands of tons of weight.
If the water intrusion problem cannot be solved, what is the use of building ships?
The entry of a new ship into the water has always been a very dangerous and difficult point in ship construction. There are too many examples of accidents occurring when a new ship enters the water.
In the past, people tried to complete the construction of ships on land. Thousands of 2,000-ton ships were entered into the water sideways through slide rails. As a result, accidents such as rollover and sinking often occurred. This method was quickly abandoned by small and medium-sized shipyards.
As for ships of more than 10,000 tons, there is no way to build them on land.
However, the neat row of ships in front have a displacement of at least 30,000 to 40,000 tons judging from their size. They cannot enter the water at all. How could they be building new ships?
However, Hikawa Okamoto soon stopped laughing.
As the distance got closer, everyone could clearly see that the workers were indeed building a new ship. In terms of completion, the one closest to it was the least complete. The laying of the keel had just been completed, and the ones farther away were in sequence.
Go, the farthest one, that is, the seventh one, seems to have been outfitted. Looking from a distance, the workers seem to be preparing something!
Yao Yuan didn't waste any time and asked the driver to drive over at a constant speed and let them look over one by one, but not at a very slow speed. He also stopped explaining it and just let them look at it.
After Hikawa Okamoto came to his senses, he asked several questions, but Yao Yuan remained silent.
Kim Jaehyun was no less shocked than Hinikawa Okamoto. He also asked Yao Yuan several questions, but Yao Yuan just shook his head slightly and did not respond.
Chen Zuer and Li Jiacheng naturally stopped explaining.
The convoy reached the seventh ship and stopped in front of the towering hull. Everyone looked at the big ship with their necks raised.
Kim Jae-hyun said, "Mr. Yao, this is a 50,000-ton Panamax cargo ship. We all know that building ships on land completely eliminates dependence on docks, but how to solve the problem of launching? You cannot have a ship with a lifting capacity of more than 10,000 tons.
Gantry crane."
"Everyone, please be patient."
Yao Yuan walked to the front, took the microphone handed over by Chen Zuer, smiled and motioned for everyone to sit down, but who could sit still?
Whether it is the segmented construction method or the giant total segment construction method, it is impossible to get rid of the shipyard, but the latter occupies the shipyard for a much shorter time, improves the utilization efficiency of the shipyard, and also increases the speed of ship construction.
What if the ship was built on land?
Then no need for a dock!
Is a shipyard without a dock still a shipyard?
Yao Yuan smiled and raised this question, "Yes, a shipyard without a dock can also be a shipyard. Everyone, you are now at the Second Branch of Fangfang Shipbuilding, a branch that uses the flat-land shipbuilding method to build ships."
Flat land shipbuilding method?
The name is familiar yet unfamiliar.
Familiarity is because the combination of these nouns is very easy to understand and the meaning can be easily seen.
It is unfamiliar because it is a phrase that has never been heard before. This is a completely new shipbuilding method, a more groundbreaking shipbuilding method than the giant block construction method.
They vaguely felt that the world's shipbuilding industry might undergo a technological revolution because of this. Perhaps it would no longer be a foolish dream to build a 300,000-ton oil tanker in one year and a 100,000-ton container ship in six months.
However, they still underestimated Yao Yuan's preparation.
If it was just a flat land shipbuilding method, he would not be so tight-lipped about it and keep it secret like this.
Yao Yuan glanced at the representatives of shipowners and shipyards, and said loudly, "Direction Shipbuilding has developed a brand new and disruptive shipbuilding method, which is the flat land shipbuilding method you see now."
"We built a slide rail system on a flat site on the shore. This slide rail system was developed by ourselves. It can be regarded as a land dock. From Dock No. 1 to Dock No. 7, it can build 30,000 to 70,000 tons of ships respectively.
Ships, among which there are three docks capable of building 70,000-ton ships.”
Having said this, Yao Yuan smiled and looked at the representative of Mediterranean Shipping, "All Panamax cargo ships of Mediterranean Shipping will be built here. Of course, orders from other shipping companies, in principle, ships not exceeding 70,000 tons will be built here.
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Is this still shipbuilding?
Laying them out in a row is like building a raft. Not to mention anything else, just the segmented transfer and movement of equipment and materials will be more than ten times more efficient than in the dock!
The key is that the tradition of building one ship in one dock has been completely broken. According to the traditional shipbuilding method, seven docks are needed to build seven ships at the same time, but now, only a flat land is needed on the shore!
A truly game-changing approach to shipbuilding.
Yao Yuan raised his chin slightly and said with great pride, "We have redefined the way ships are built."
He pointed forward, "Everyone, please turn back."
Everyone turned back quickly, their movements uniform.
Yao Yuan said, "What you see now is the assembly workshop, followed by the production workshop, and then the material preparation workshop. From the material preparation workshop to the outfitting yard where we are, this is a ship production line."
Kim Jae-hyun keenly noticed that Yao Yuan used the term "production line". He secretly paid attention to it and glanced around him warily. He found that representatives of several other Japanese and Korean shipyards were looking attentively.
"A dedicated multi-purpose transfer system is used between each workshop to form a flow production model. After the assembly is completed here, outfitting is carried out. The next step is to launch the water."
Kim Jae-hyun suddenly asked, "Mr. Yao, how long does it take to build a 70,000-ton Panamax cargo ship?"
Everyone turned to stare at Yao Yuan.
The shipyard owned by Hyundai Heavy Industries once took less than 15 months to build a 70,000-ton Panamax cargo ship, which is one of the fastest world records.
Yao Yuan recalled for a moment, seemed to be thinking, stretched out a palm, spread his fingers, and said, "Five months."