Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 15 hours ago
FIBRE4YARDS Shipyard 4.0: enhancing the quality of shipbuilding while reducing costs and environmental impact!
The FIBRE4YARDS project started its journey with a major challenge ahead: transforming the European ship manufacturing industry by defining a new 4.0 shipyard: collaborative, digitalised, automated, more efficient and environmentally friendly.
After nearly three years of intense research work, the FIBRE4YARDS consortium is proud to present the three pillars on which this new shipyard is based: new technologies for automated ship construction, a digitalised shipyard and its digital twin, and new engineering tools for ship design that take new production technologies into account.
FIBRE4YARDS' advanced automated production methods can be adopted by shipyards or used by shipyard suppliers to produce components for assembly in the shipyard. The latter approach minimises implementation costs and improves process efficiency and quality by allowing suppliers to specialise in specific manufacturing technologies.
These new manufacturing technologies have recently been presented to the industry, which is following FIBRE4YARDS’ developments with great interest. These are:
Pultrusion of curved composite profiles
3D printing and Automatic Tape Placement
Hot stamping of thermoplastic composites
Adaptive moulds to manufacture curved panels
FIBRE4YARDS has also developed a new design software that includes specific formulations for analysing vessels manufactured with the newly developed technologies. The software includes specific functions to evaluate, for example, connections or 3D printed materials.
This software will make it possible to optimise the ship’s structure, reduce its weight and improve its efficiency.
The introduction of all these new technologies in a shipyard must be done together with life cycle analyses of the processes and materials in order to minimise the environmental impact of shipbuilding and the resulting ship. The initial analyses carried out as part of the project have shown that material selection is of paramount importance in reducing environmental impact.
FIBRE4YARDS has also produced guidelines to facilitate the use of the different technologies developed, and business plans for the resulting shipyard, which will benefit from a collaborative approach to shipbuilding, shorter production times and reduced maintenance requirements and costs.
In FIBRE4YARDS, we have proven that it is possible to rethink the shipyard.
If we digitise it, if we move from manual construction to automated processes, if we incorporate modular construction and, last but not least, if we incorporate and use numerical tools that can take all these processes into account, then, we will be able to build ships that are cheaper, that have higher quality and which environmental impact is reduced throughout its lifecycle.
FIBRE4YARDS is here to help you. Are you ready to cast off?
FIBRE4YARDS Shipyard 4.0: enhancing the quality of shipbuilding while reducing costs and environmental impact!
The FIBRE4YARDS project started its journey with a major challenge ahead: transforming the European ship manufacturing industry by defining a new 4.0 shipyard: collaborative, digitalised, automated, more efficient and environmentally friendly.
After nearly three years of intense research work, the FIBRE4YARDS consortium is proud to present the three pillars on which this new shipyard is based: new technologies for automated ship construction, a digitalised shipyard and its digital twin, and new engineering tools for ship design that take new production technologies into account.
FIBRE4YARDS' advanced automated production methods can be adopted by shipyards or used by shipyard suppliers to produce components for assembly in the shipyard. The latter approach minimises implementation costs and improves process efficiency and quality by allowing suppliers to specialise in specific manufacturing technologies.
These new manufacturing technologies have recently been presented to the industry, which is following FIBRE4YARDS’ developments with great interest. These are:
Pultrusion of curved composite profiles
3D printing and Automatic Tape Placement
Hot stamping of thermoplastic composites
Adaptive moulds to manufacture curved panels
FIBRE4YARDS has also developed a new design software that includes specific formulations for analysing vessels manufactured with the newly developed technologies. The software includes specific functions to evaluate, for example, connections or 3D printed materials.
This software will make it possible to optimise the ship’s structure, reduce its weight and improve its efficiency.
The introduction of all these new technologies in a shipyard must be done together with life cycle analyses of the processes and materials in order to minimise the environmental impact of shipbuilding and the resulting ship. The initial analyses carried out as part of the project have shown that material selection is of paramount importance in reducing environmental impact.
FIBRE4YARDS has also produced guidelines to facilitate the use of the different technologies developed, and business plans for the resulting shipyard, which will benefit from a collaborative approach to shipbuilding, shorter production times and reduced maintenance requirements and costs.
In FIBRE4YARDS, we have proven that it is possible to rethink the shipyard.
If we digitise it, if we move from manual construction to automated processes, if we incorporate modular construction and, last but not least, if we incorporate and use numerical tools that can take all these processes into account, then, we will be able to build ships that are cheaper, that have higher quality and which environmental impact is reduced throughout its lifecycle.
FIBRE4YARDS is here to help you. Are you ready to cast off?
