Grant Bradley visited the German shipyard where Quantum class vessels like Ovation of the Seas are built. He describes how it is done.
1 First start with two pieces of steel One small piece from which a ceremonial silhouette of the ship or the first letter of its name is cut and another up to 30m by 30m to start the job in earnest. The large sheets form the base of modular cruise ship construction which are like building out with Lego on a massive scale.
2 Steel used in the hull can be 30mm thick At the Meyer Werft shipyard in north-west Germany it is cut by the biggest robotic lasers in Europe in a special room where trade secrets are carefully guarded.
3 Steel plates are then welded using a hybrid welding process, robots welding seams at high speed. The flat pieces of steel are joined to become sections of the ship, and all work is done on the floor so whatever will end up in the ceiling cavity is fitted by workers bending down rather than working above their heads. These sections can weigh up to 180 tonnes and are then picked up by a huge gantry crane and flipped for work on what is actually the floor.
4 Meyer Werft has adapted work-flow processes from the car industry with a four-hour target for completing all sections. Eight sections are joined to become massive blocks in the neighbouring ship assembly building.
The aft keel section is lifted into the dry dock building bay first, and in keeping with centuries-old ship building tradition is placed on a lucky coin (with Ovation's sister ship, the Quantum of the Seas a 430-tonne block was lowered on to a freshly minted penny).
The engines are then fitted. Quantum class vessels have two diesel engines and bow thrusters with more than 50MW capacity- the size a power station. Typically 70 to 80 blocks make up a cruise ship and each can weigh up to 800 tonnes. After being lifted on to each other there is typically just a 1mm gap between them for welding together. Prefabricated cabins and other rooms are slid into place.
