COURTESY / FRONT STREET SHIPYARD
A carbon-fiber ferry built by Brodrene Aa, the Norwegian shipyard partnering with Front Street Shipyard in Belfast.
August 18, 2020
Belfast shipyard seeks competitive advantage with new device
Courtesy / Waterjet USA LLC
Seen here is a rendering of a Suprema DX 1340 waterjet cutting machine, due to arrive this month at Front Street Shipyard.
Front Street Shipyard in Belfast will soon install what it says will be the largest waterjet cutting machine of its kind in Maine.
Waterjet cutting machines use a high-pressure jet of water mixed with an abrasive substance to produce cuts with very clean edges that require little finishing. This saves time in several ways: It makes metal-cutting faster, reduces the time needed to prepare the metal surface for welding and makes more accurate cuts because shipwrights can cut parts directly from electronic data drawn by engineers.
“It will cut just about anything,” JB Turner, Front Street's president, told Mainebiz.
It will streamline work on both custom and production boats, reduce costs and improve quality, he said. It also allows the shipyard to diversity its services beyond work on boats — a hedge against economic downturns.
Front Street purchased a Suprema DX 1340 model from Illinois-based Waterjet USA LLC.
The overall investment is about $900,000, said Turner. The cutter is paid for in part by a $667,028 award received in 2018 from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration’s Small Shipyard Grant Program. The remainder is financed through a loan from Androscoggin Bank.
Turner, a 2017 Mainebiz Next honoree, said the machine will likely arrive at the yard this month.
Then there will be a few weeks of set-up and training. The training will be facilitated by a new employee coming onboard who has experience with the technology, he said. The yard’s in-house design team will adapt its computer-aided design program for use with the machine.
The five-axis 3D waterjet cutting machine will be used to cut large parts for the yard’s own boat construction and refits, and will also provide cutting services to outside businesses, according to a news release.
The investment included the purchase of a vacuum lifting system to help raise large sheets of material onto the cutter’s bed, he said. The system is essentially a vacuum machine suspended from an overhead crane.
The goal is to be operational by late September.
The machine will be installed in Front Street Shipyard’s newest building, a 22,500-square foot shop where shipwrights handle large yacht refits and commercial vessel construction projects up to 200 feet long.
Cuts any material
The 18-foot by 50-foot machine can cut three-dimensional parts in any shape, size or material up to a maximum thickness of about 11 inches. Parts can be manufactured within a tolerance of a few thousandths of an inch.
The machine uses high-pressure water to cut, shape and ream very large parts such as frames, molds and panels used in manufacturing and construction. Capable of cutting nearly any material including textiles, stainless steel, and titanium, the machine will cut parts directly from engineer-drawn electronic data with a high degree of precision and accuracy. Front Street Shipyard will use the machine to manufacture parts for the construction and refitting of commercial and recreational vessels.
The purchase was initially driven by Front Street’s partnership with Brodene AA, a Norwegian boat builder that specializes in building carbon fiber ferries in Europe, said Turner.
Front Street partnered with Brodene AA in 2015 to market, sell and build carbon-fiber ferries in the United States under the new company name Arcadia Alliance.
But the machine will expand the shipyard’s capabilities beyond the marine market. The shipyard is now scheduling manufacturing work for this fall when the assembly and operational training for the machine is complete.
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