The National Shipbuilding Research Program, 1990 Ship Production Symposium, Paper No. 5A-1: Modeling and Transfer of Product Model Digital Data for the DDG 51 Class Destroyer Program

Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technologies offer significant benefits in the design, construction, and life cycle support of today's complex Navy ships. CAD provides the capability to create three dimensional (3D) product models which can realistically represent geometry and associated design data of the ship prior to construction. Building of a computer model of the ship prior to construction reduces interferences and improves design accuracy and completeness. The 3D computer models consist of geometry and associated design data for components and systems, and provide a tool to design and evaluate form, fit, and function. Efforts such as interference detection and resolution, simulated walk-throughs, change-impact analysis, and improved production sequence planning can be conducted concurrently with design development. Detail design drawings, manufacturing sketches and Numerical Control (NC) instructions can be developed and extracted directly from the design database. This reduces duplication of data, saves time, and lowers costs - for both the construction of the ship and the life cycle maintenance functions that follow. The most significant benefits of 3D CAD/CAM functions that follow. The most significant benefits of 3D CAD/CAM methodologies as applied to complex Navy surface combatants are improved design and manufacturing accuracy and consistency, which in turn result in savings in production time and cost. On the U.S. Navy's ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG 51) Class AEGIS Destroyer program, CAD/CAM technology is being implemented to take full advantage of these savings. Pres. at the NSRP 1990 Ship Production Symposium, Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 21-24 Aug 1990.