Abstract
The paper describes sheet metal forming techniques in shipbuilding, especially that new approach by utilizing a cold bending process, i.e., a press process, to form a wide and thick steel plate into the arbitrary objective shape. The state-of-the-art technology in this research is that a press machine which is used for general purpose in most shipyards is directly utilized to form the undevelopable shape, not preparing the special die for each plate. The paper introduces the general about the sheet metal forming work in shipbuilding at first. Then the press supporting system which is already developed and introduced in the actual shipyard is explained. The further development for extending its function to form an undevelopable surface by the press work is described finally.
