Automation and robotisation
in shipbuilding and maritime indust

Design Services

Shipbuilding and maritime are two distinct production environments: in the yard, section-welding output and dock occupancy matter; at sea, retrofit without interrupting operations and fit-up to undocumented engine-room or offshore-platform geometry.

At MDP Engineering we design and implement turnkey robotic large-structure welding, plasma cutting and reverse engineering based on 3D scanning — cutting SAT time in dock by up to 50%, lowering NDT repair rate and eliminating design collisions during retrofit. Full engineering stack: from a 3D model in SolidWorks and Siemens NX, through virtual commissioning in Process Simulate, to physical start-up on the slipway or deck.

Production challenges in shipbuilding and maritime

Automation of shipyard processes hits barriers that do not exist in other heavy industry:

Scale and mass of structures

Welding of bottom, side and superstructure sections means handling parts of several to a dozen tonnes. Standard robotic cells have no reach — gantries, travel tracks and special positioning systems are required.

Strict NDT and repair rate

Every weld is accepted by classification societies (DNV, LRS, BV). A welding nonconformity means grinding, weld-up and re-inspection — repair rate is a direct measure of welding-line profitability.

Cost of every dock hour

A dry dock or slipway blocked during start-up of a new automation system generates direct losses. Each week of slower SAT is operational cost and penalty risk.

Unique geometry and mill tolerances

Ship plate and steel profiles have large dimensional deviations. A rigid robot path programmed once on paper would weld air — real-time seam tracking is essential.

Missing technical documentation (brownfield / retrofit):

Fitting working ships with scrubbers, ballast-water treatment or new engine-room piping requires precise insertion into space whose 3D documentation usually does not exist.

Our engineering solutions: why MDP Engineering for Maritime?

3D hull scanning and reverse engineering of marine parts

No 3D CAD model is standard in repair yards — especially on 1980s–90s vessels. Without digital geometry every retrofit starts with guesswork and collisions at assembly.

How it helps

Industrial 3D scanning captures a precise point cloud of the engine room, hull section or pipe space in a few hours — accuracy below 1 mm.

What we can do

From scans we perform reverse engineering of worn rotating parts: propellers, rudder blades, gearbox elements. New installation modules are designed directly in the point cloud — a new pipe or bracket “fits” without repeated dry-dock trials. CNC manufacture of reconstructed parts is offered by sister company MDP Precision.

Robotic large-structure welding and plasma cutting

Manual welding of long seams in awkward positions is slow, error-prone and hard to repeat. We design robotic workstations matched to shipyard size and process.

How it helps

KUKA and Fanuc robots on gantries or tracks produce continuous section welds up to a dozen metres. Active Laser Seam Tracking corrects the path in real time regardless of actual plate-edge deviation.

Measurable benefit

Welding output up more than 100% with a lower NDT defect rate. Fewer repairs, shorter section dwell in the hall, lower repair rate.

What we can do

3D plasma cutting for pipe and profile bevelling before welding, and full manipulator stations with positioners for heavy sections.

Virtual Commissioning: SAT in dock shorter by up to 50%

This is the differentiator that separates MDP Engineering from a typical integrator. Instead of programming and testing automation on a live machine in dock — blocking expensive dock infrastructure — we verify the whole system digitally before the first welded frame exists.

How it works

We build a complete Digital Twin of the designed system — welding gantry, robots, PLCs — in Siemens Process Simulate or RoboDK. Siemens TIA Portal or Beckhoff TwinCAT code runs on a virtual machine and is tested on the simulated line before any mechanical part is produced.

What we verify digitally

robot reach and collisions with ship structure, welding cycle times for the actual section geometry, safety sequences and PLC logic, Emergency Stop scenarios.

Client benefit

Program and kinematics arrive on the physical machine already tested. SAT in dock is 40–60% shorter — days instead of a month of start-up with corrections. The dock returns to production earlier, and the risk of defects found only “on the ship” is close to zero.

We also offer service and modernization of existing machines.

Example scope: robotic welding gantry

A typical maritime project by MDP Engineering includes:

  • 3D hall scanning and geometry of hull sections to be automated
  • Mechanical gantry design with travel track and rotator positioning (SolidWorks / Siemens NX) and electrical design in EPLAN
  • KUKA robot selection and integration with Seam Tracking and welding torches
  • Virtual Commissioning in Process Simulate — reach, PLC program and cycle times before structural steel is ordered
  • Build and FAT at MDP Engineering in Gdańsk — full-cycle tests before shipment
  • SAT and commissioning directly in the client shipyard with operator training

Proces (Turnkey): Od koncepcji po uruchomienie w stoczni

echnology audit and process analysis

Hall layout, welded-section geometry, automation potential.

3D scanning and concept

Digital geometry of the workspace — the basis for collision-free gantry and track design.

3D CAD and EPLAN

Complete mechanical and electrical documentation ready for production.

Virtual Commissioning (Digital Twin)

PLC program, robot reach and cycle times in simulation — before the first steel part is ordered.

Build and FAT

Mechanical assembly, controller start-up, safety tests before shipment to the yard.

SAT and maintenance

Assembly in dock or on the slipway, sensor calibration, operator training and optional service.

Discuss your shipyard project with an MDP Engineering engineer

Shipbuilding automation needs a partner who combines welding, heavy mechanics and advanced automation — and who will not stop your production during implementation.