...Jay Jenkins is quite enthusiastic when he takes a visitor around the facilities at
Ingalls Shipbuilding’s Gulfport Operations. The site director of the company’s
Composites Center of Excellence takes pleasure showing what they do in
Gulfport, and explaining how they do it. And it is impressive.
...They build huge composite structures for Navy ships, including components
for the next generation DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer. And one thing that
will really get Jenkins talking is a discussion about new ventures the company is
eyeing.
...How about wind blade construction and repair, or bridges and roadway
sections? None of that is too far afield. And, as if to drive home the point, not
long ago the team in Gulfport built an emergency escape composite fairing for
the crew capsule of the now-defunct Constellation Program. But that is
shipbuilding - of the spaceship variety.
...“I’m very excited about the future, because of the capabilities and the folks
that we have working here. This is a world-class facility. We’re the only ones
that can build marine carbon fiber composites in the size that we build them.
Nobody else in the world can do that.”
...The Gulfport operation has been building composite parts for ships for a long
time, but Jenkins sees a lot of new fields on the horizon.
...“Looking to the future, I see the possibilities as endless in terms of what we
can do in support of marine composites, in support of civil infrastructure -
bridges, roadways, those types of things - in terms of alternative energy
capabilities. I think that Gulfport and the composite center of excellence at
Gulfport has nearly unlimited world-class capability for future work here.”
...That Jenkins is comfortable with change isn’t that surprising. Change has been
the norm for the company since the start of the year.
The company
...Ingalls Shipbuilding Gulfport Operations is part of Ingalls Shipbuilding, which
in turn is a part of the 38,000 employee Huntington Ingalls Industries of
Newport News, Va. The company, with operations in Mississippi, Virginia,
Louisiana and California, was spun off from Northrop Grumman in March
2011, in part because the shipbuilding portion of Northrop Grumman did not
mesh with the focus areas of that company. Northrop acquired the shipyard
when it bought Litton Industries.
...Ingalls Shipbuilding has three sites across the Gulf Coast with nearly 11,000
employees: Mississippi’s Gulfport and Pascagoula operations, as well as the
Avondale, La., shipyard. In 2013, the Avondale will be shut down. Earlier, the
Tallulah, La., facility was closed. All of Avondale’s work will be consolidated in
Pascagoula
...Ingalls is building 28 of the 62 ship DDG 51 class of Aegis guided missile
destroyers for the Navy. It’s also the builder of record for the LPD, LHD and
LHA classes of amphibious assault ships, and builder of the U.S. Coast Guard’s
National Security Cutter.
...Right now the Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula has an $18 billion backlog that
will carry it into 2018. In April it was awarded a $1.5 billion contract to build
LPD 26, its 10th amphibious transport dock ship. This year and next there could
be one more amphibious transport dock contract to come on line, as well as a
continuation of the DDG 51 destroyer program beyond the first two vessels.
The company could also see more Coast Guard cutter activity, and will begin
building the Hamilton this summer, according to the Mississippi Press.
...But among U.S. shipbuilders, Ingalls has the only composite center of
excellence. Other companies, even shipbuilders, also craft vessels out of
composites. But none is involved in programs on the scale and scope of the
work done at the composite shop.
Composites center
...The Gulfport operation is a multi-building facility that occupies a 120-acre site
in Bernard Bayou Industrial District. It has done composite structures ranging
from small combatant craft of less than 200 feet to lightweight aerospace
structures. It has a workforce of 500, according to the company’s Web site.
...Gulfport has been building composite masts for the LPD 17 program since
2001. The mast is a detachable, octagon-shaped structure 93 feet high and 35
feet in diameter constructed of a multilayer, frequency selective material
designed to allow passage of specific radio frequencies while reflecting others.
...As strong as steel, composites are resistant to corrosion, lightweight, stealthy
and have reduced maintenance costs. One key benefit is electronics can be
integrated into the structure, a key reason for composite masts.
...But composites are more costly.
...Gulfport’s experience goes back to the hand layup fabrication technology used
in the MHC 51 Osprey 4 class mine hunters. Today they use very different
techniques, including vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM).
...In addition to masts for LPD 17, the Gulfport operation has also built a mast
for the carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) to replace a steel mast, and
other topside structures for the CVN 78 Ford class of carrier.
...But it’s the work on the DDG 1000 class of ship that is particularly striking
for the size of the structures alone. The Zumwalt class is being built by General
Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Maine, but Ingalls is a major contractor. It’s
building the ship’s integrated composite deckhouses and helicopter hangars, as
well as parts of the ships’ peripheral vertical launch systems.
...Ingalls had to build a new set of manufacturing buildings to handle work on
the Zumwalt, whose deckhouse is nearly double the width and five times the
length of the Antonio-class ship masts, according to Aviation Week.
...“I can do multiple composite processes, and I can do different types of
processes at the same time because I have a plant that’s large enough and a
work force that’s diverse enough and skilled enough to be able to do those,
regardless of where the project is and how big it is,” Jenkins told Alliance Insight.
...The biggest panels can take more than 24 hours to infuse with resin and cure.
The company has adapted some composite-industry processes and developed
some of its own to infuse and cure the resin and then check each piece with
special ultrasonic inspection equipment.
...That’s a major investment for a ship class that has been cut from about two
dozen ships down to its current three. But the Navy likes composites for topside
structures, and the investment Ingalls has made may be worth it.
Beyond shipbuilding
...Ingalls is looking at four areas of opportunity: major composite structures,
topside components and radomes, small composite structures and commercial
products.
...While shipbuilding will continue to be the primary activity for the Gulfport
operation, the company understands there are opportunities that go beyond the
shipbuilding field. And that’s where Jenkins wants to go.
...“Pick an industry or pick a type of construction,” said Jenkins. “It would
include everything from wind blade repair and construction to potentially
roadbeds to offshore oil platforms, where we could build composite structures
that don’t corrode and are lightweight so it gives the structure further capability
to do what they need to do.
...And aerospace?
...“I think we can do small parts, covers, and those kinds of things, shields,
cowlings, things that don’t require autoclaves, we can use an out of autoclave
process for manufacturing if we can get the engineering and the tooling we can
do the process.”
...For Ingalls’ Gulfport operation, it’s all a matter of trying to see what’s over
the horizon. - David Tortorano
July 2011
Ingalls Shipbuilding’s Gulfport Operations. The site director of the company’s
Composites Center of Excellence takes pleasure showing what they do in
Gulfport, and explaining how they do it. And it is impressive.
...They build huge composite structures for Navy ships, including components
for the next generation DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer. And one thing that
will really get Jenkins talking is a discussion about new ventures the company is
eyeing.
...How about wind blade construction and repair, or bridges and roadway
sections? None of that is too far afield. And, as if to drive home the point, not
long ago the team in Gulfport built an emergency escape composite fairing for
the crew capsule of the now-defunct Constellation Program. But that is
shipbuilding - of the spaceship variety.
...“I’m very excited about the future, because of the capabilities and the folks
that we have working here. This is a world-class facility. We’re the only ones
that can build marine carbon fiber composites in the size that we build them.
Nobody else in the world can do that.”
...The Gulfport operation has been building composite parts for ships for a long
time, but Jenkins sees a lot of new fields on the horizon.
...“Looking to the future, I see the possibilities as endless in terms of what we
can do in support of marine composites, in support of civil infrastructure -
bridges, roadways, those types of things - in terms of alternative energy
capabilities. I think that Gulfport and the composite center of excellence at
Gulfport has nearly unlimited world-class capability for future work here.”
...That Jenkins is comfortable with change isn’t that surprising. Change has been
the norm for the company since the start of the year.
The company
...Ingalls Shipbuilding Gulfport Operations is part of Ingalls Shipbuilding, which
in turn is a part of the 38,000 employee Huntington Ingalls Industries of
Newport News, Va. The company, with operations in Mississippi, Virginia,
Louisiana and California, was spun off from Northrop Grumman in March
2011, in part because the shipbuilding portion of Northrop Grumman did not
mesh with the focus areas of that company. Northrop acquired the shipyard
when it bought Litton Industries.
...Ingalls Shipbuilding has three sites across the Gulf Coast with nearly 11,000
employees: Mississippi’s Gulfport and Pascagoula operations, as well as the
Avondale, La., shipyard. In 2013, the Avondale will be shut down. Earlier, the
Tallulah, La., facility was closed. All of Avondale’s work will be consolidated in
Pascagoula
...Ingalls is building 28 of the 62 ship DDG 51 class of Aegis guided missile
destroyers for the Navy. It’s also the builder of record for the LPD, LHD and
LHA classes of amphibious assault ships, and builder of the U.S. Coast Guard’s
National Security Cutter.
...Right now the Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula has an $18 billion backlog that
will carry it into 2018. In April it was awarded a $1.5 billion contract to build
LPD 26, its 10th amphibious transport dock ship. This year and next there could
be one more amphibious transport dock contract to come on line, as well as a
continuation of the DDG 51 destroyer program beyond the first two vessels.
The company could also see more Coast Guard cutter activity, and will begin
building the Hamilton this summer, according to the Mississippi Press.
...But among U.S. shipbuilders, Ingalls has the only composite center of
excellence. Other companies, even shipbuilders, also craft vessels out of
composites. But none is involved in programs on the scale and scope of the
work done at the composite shop.
Composites center
...The Gulfport operation is a multi-building facility that occupies a 120-acre site
in Bernard Bayou Industrial District. It has done composite structures ranging
from small combatant craft of less than 200 feet to lightweight aerospace
structures. It has a workforce of 500, according to the company’s Web site.
...Gulfport has been building composite masts for the LPD 17 program since
2001. The mast is a detachable, octagon-shaped structure 93 feet high and 35
feet in diameter constructed of a multilayer, frequency selective material
designed to allow passage of specific radio frequencies while reflecting others.
...As strong as steel, composites are resistant to corrosion, lightweight, stealthy
and have reduced maintenance costs. One key benefit is electronics can be
integrated into the structure, a key reason for composite masts.
...But composites are more costly.
...Gulfport’s experience goes back to the hand layup fabrication technology used
in the MHC 51 Osprey 4 class mine hunters. Today they use very different
techniques, including vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM).
...In addition to masts for LPD 17, the Gulfport operation has also built a mast
for the carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) to replace a steel mast, and
other topside structures for the CVN 78 Ford class of carrier.
...But it’s the work on the DDG 1000 class of ship that is particularly striking
for the size of the structures alone. The Zumwalt class is being built by General
Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Maine, but Ingalls is a major contractor. It’s
building the ship’s integrated composite deckhouses and helicopter hangars, as
well as parts of the ships’ peripheral vertical launch systems.
...Ingalls had to build a new set of manufacturing buildings to handle work on
the Zumwalt, whose deckhouse is nearly double the width and five times the
length of the Antonio-class ship masts, according to Aviation Week.
...“I can do multiple composite processes, and I can do different types of
processes at the same time because I have a plant that’s large enough and a
work force that’s diverse enough and skilled enough to be able to do those,
regardless of where the project is and how big it is,” Jenkins told Alliance Insight.
...The biggest panels can take more than 24 hours to infuse with resin and cure.
The company has adapted some composite-industry processes and developed
some of its own to infuse and cure the resin and then check each piece with
special ultrasonic inspection equipment.
...That’s a major investment for a ship class that has been cut from about two
dozen ships down to its current three. But the Navy likes composites for topside
structures, and the investment Ingalls has made may be worth it.
Beyond shipbuilding
...Ingalls is looking at four areas of opportunity: major composite structures,
topside components and radomes, small composite structures and commercial
products.
...While shipbuilding will continue to be the primary activity for the Gulfport
operation, the company understands there are opportunities that go beyond the
shipbuilding field. And that’s where Jenkins wants to go.
...“Pick an industry or pick a type of construction,” said Jenkins. “It would
include everything from wind blade repair and construction to potentially
roadbeds to offshore oil platforms, where we could build composite structures
that don’t corrode and are lightweight so it gives the structure further capability
to do what they need to do.
...And aerospace?
...“I think we can do small parts, covers, and those kinds of things, shields,
cowlings, things that don’t require autoclaves, we can use an out of autoclave
process for manufacturing if we can get the engineering and the tooling we can
do the process.”
...For Ingalls’ Gulfport operation, it’s all a matter of trying to see what’s over
the horizon. - David Tortorano
July 2011
Advanced materials/shipbuilding
Looking beyond shipbuilding
Looking beyond shipbuilding
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