Author: dcadmin

How G&C Meets the Needs of our Client’s Non-Military & Commercial Ship Designs

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We begin our ship design process by understanding the needs of our clients, and these become our top priorities through every phase of the ship design process. We interact directly with you from the start of a project and around the design spiral. Through our client’s vision, we are able to develop a design that meets their aesthetic style and functional objectives.

To Ensure Quality Solutions, We Comply with All Necessary Rules and Regulations for Ship Design

Ship Design Example Patrol Fire Rescue BoatOur team of experienced ship designers and engineers ensures that all our designs are fully integrated and compliant with all contractual requirements to meet our client’s expectations and deliver top-quality solutions.

Developing non-military and commercial vessels often requires the need to include a selected Classification Society rule set, which includes American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) Rules for Steel Vessels, DNV GL Rules for Classification of Ships, Lloyd’s Register Rules, Bureau Veritas, and Regulations for the Classification of Ships. Classification Society rules also adhere to industry-required specifications and standards.

In addition to following U.S. rules and regulations for our domestic clients, when working abroad, we must follow the local governmental and international regulations. These regulations include the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, USCG COLREGS, SOLAS, and International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards. These regulations often vary from country to country as well.

Our Commitment to Vessel Repair, Maintenance, and Conversion

Our offices are conveniently located throughout the U.S. Our project managers and engineers are always ready for rapid support. We apply our services to provide value-add to owners and shipyards for maintenance, repairs, and conversion projects. Our team can support rapid turnaround on emergent engineering and planning needs including:

  • Repairs
  • Refits
  • Surveys
  • Repowering
  • Retrofits
  • Upgrades

Learn More About Commercial Ship Design Development.

Why Choose the Largest Independent Naval Architecture Firm in the United States?

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As the largest independent naval architecture & marine engineering firm in the United States, we pride ourselves on our ability to tailor our processes to the specific needs of clients and shipyards.

Our combination of size, diverse skillset, and independence enables us to offer a wide variety of capabilities while maintaining the ability to work with a variety of shipyards domestically and internationally. This adaptability is what allows us to deliver the best value and solutions to our clients.

With over 90 years of industry experience, we have remained on the cutting edge of technological advancements in the maritime industry, and that experience allows us to provide a well thought out, comprehensive set of services to meet the needs of a variety of programs.

We Are Dedicated to Providing Comprehensive Naval Architecture Design Services

Naval ArchitectureOur engineers combine the use of in-house proprietary naval architecture tools and industry-leading software with an extensive technical library to provide accurate naval architecture assessments to our clients.

To ensure our clients’ satisfaction, our naval architecture services span the entire ship’s lifetime, from early-stage concept designs through detailed design, shipyard construction support, full lifecycle and sustainment support, ship alterations, service life extensions, and disposal.

Our efforts maximize producibility and affordability while mitigating risk for procurement, planning, construction, test, delivery, and acceptance.

Since our founding in 1929, our dedication to our clients’ success has allowed us to expand our presence, technological advancements, capabilities, and standards of success.

We Adapt to The Naval Architecture Needs of Our Clients

G&C designs are producible, capable, and competitive for construction in any shipyard. Our services include work products that are customized to the specific needs, standards, and capabilities of the shipyard facility and personnel performing the work.

Our large talent pool and staff’s diverse skill sets allow hands-on support for our clients by placing personnel on-site all over the world.

With offices along the East Coast of the United States, on the Gulf of Mexico, and in Australia, G&C prides itself on having available resources all over the world in order to better serve our customers.

Learn more about the largest independent naval architecture firm in the United States.

Why G&C is the Right Partner for Autonomous and Unmanned Ship Innovation

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Finding the right partner can be challenging, no matter the task, but when you need to develop an unmanned ship, how do you know which partner is right for you?

As an independent design agent, Gibbs & Cox is an ideal partner for small, independent teams looking to increase autonomous and unmanned ship capability while reducing overhead and associated costs.

Our Approach to Hull, Mechanical & Electrical (HM&E) Autonomy Integration

Standard with our design, our ability to monitor, predict, and diagnose protentional performance deteriorations and failures in an HM&E system is critical to the success of a long-term unmanned ship deployment, which is essential to our clients’ success.

In order to achieve long durations without human intervention, we collaborate with industry and R&D leaders in HM&E system design, reliability, and Artificial Intelligence to develop unmanned ships that can meet these standards.

Below are several features that are key to the development of HM&E Autonomy Systems. G&C is an experienced provider of each service:

  • Robust HM&E system with redundant elements and interconnectivities
  • MOSA (Modular Open Systems Architecture) software implementation including reusable interfaces to both higher level autonomy elements and HM&E components
  • Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)-based machinery automation
  • Embedded sensors
  • Active learning

Developing Cutting-Edge Unmanned and Autonomous Vessel Designs our Customers Can Trust

From concept to sustainment, Gibbs & Cox combines decades of cutting-edge naval architecture with industry leading marine engineering original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to provide our clients with a product they can trust. We partner with innovative, cross-domain Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution providers and reputable shipyards to deliver the best value for our clients.

Our dedication to the advancement of autonomous and unmanned ships has led us to win several notable awards, including:

Learn More About Our Autonomous and Unmanned Ship Innovations

 

How Gibbs & Cox’s Marine Engineers and Naval Architects Have Impacted the Maritime Industry

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Throughout Gibbs & Cox’s 90+ years of experience in the shipbuilding industry, we have recruited some of the most talented and experienced marine engineers and naval architects in the United States. G&C prioritizes hiring passionate and driven individuals to innovate and create high-quality products to advance the maritime industry. Leading the US in maritime innovation has led to the completion of approximately 300 vessel designs, 7,000 vessels built, including 24 classes of naval combatants, and several notable awards that have shaped the future of ship design.

Gibbs & Cox’s History of Quality Marine Engineering Services

Marine Engineering ServicesGibbs & Cox’s naval architects and marine engineers have a robust history of developing some of the most notable designs in the United States, a few of which include the SS United States, FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigates, the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer, the Littoral Combat Ship Freedom-Variant Class, and newest generation of US Navy Frigates, the FFG Constellation Class. We have remained committed to providing the highest quality design and engineering products and services to each and every customer and we continuously build upon our history.

G&C has supported the development of many different technological advancements such as integrated power systems and environmental treatment systems. The key to G&C’s successful development of functional systems is our use of a phased approach to the design process. This phased approach guarantees that the level of detail with each system design is slowly increased for every successive design product before detailed design commences.

The design process at Gibbs & Cox includes but is not limited to:

  • System tradeoff studies
  • Ship checks
  • Ship system analysis
  • Preparation of cost/time/schedule estimates

Providing Marine Engineering Services for the 21st Century

Our recent merger with Leidos will enhance our combined marine engineering offerings and accelerate an expansion of products and services to current and future customers. G&C will continue to prioritize hiring marine engineers and naval architects who are dedicated to developing the future of technological innovations in the maritime industry.

Learn more about Gibbs & Cox marine engineering services.

How Gibbs & Cox Develops Innovative Marine Autonomy Solutions

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G&C is a leading ship designer and integrator of autonomous systems for government and commercial clients. Our understanding of marine autonomy goes further than the implementation of navigation and control. Our experience developing autonomous vessels for our range of clients starts with a deep understanding of autonomy, the associated challenges, and our willingness to team with the best in the industry.

Developing the Future of Marine Autonomy

Marine Autonomy

Our initial implementation of marine autonomy dates back to 1955, when the U.S. Navy commenced the production of the project SEA LEGS. We developed an automated system that actively controlled two submerged hydrofoils in order to influence the pitch and roll attitude of the vessel in flight. This first application of actively controlled foils provided ride quality and safety that was superior to other vessels with fixed hydrofoil.

To this day, we remain on the cutting edge of technology and development of the Navy’s next generation of unmanned vessels. From concept to sustainment, we combine decades of naval architecture experience with the world’s most reliable marine engineering original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to deliver revolutionary technology to our clients.

Our dedication to advancing our unmanned and autonomous capabilities has led to us winning several notable awards, including:

Solving Complex Marine Autonomy Challenges

Marine autonomy often becomes more complex when an unmanned surface vessel (USV) is expected to perform more than a transit mission between points. Mission complexity is a key distinction between military and commercial applications. An autonomous vessel designed for military application is expected to perform self-navigation and control functions, but with the added requirements of performing complex mission evolutions in hostile environments. Gibbs & Cox is dedicated to solving these challenges for our clients and both investigating and advancing the exciting potential of marine autonomy.

Some of the technical challenges which Gibbs & Cox is proactively solving in the marine autonomy field are:

  • Maneuverability (particularly for large vehicles)
  • Endurance (range and persistence)
  • Reliability (redundancy, self-maintenance and self-repair of systems and equipment)
  • Communications (high speed, reliable and secure)
  • Cooperative employment of multiple USVs working together autonomously

Ethical and legal challenges in advancing USV technology include:

  • Safety of the USV and the vessels or objects it encounters
  • Security of the USV (physical and cyber)
  • Autonomous employment of weapon systems (offensive and defensive)

Give us a call to learn about how our expertise in marine autonomy can benefit you.

How Gibbs & Cox Successfully Meets U.S. Navy Ship Design Requirements

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To execute our commitment to achieving the highest quality naval ship designs and meeting our client’s needs, Gibbs & Cox follows strict naval architecture rules, regulations, and design requirements.

Gibbs & Cox Adheres to Rigorous Ship Design Rules & Standards

Naval ship designs are tailored to meet an immense set of specifications. These specifications include the Navy’s unique governing rule set and numerous governmental and industrial regulations and standards. U.S. naval ship designs are developed using the Naval Combatant Design Specification or other Ship Class System Specification as the governing rule set. These rule sets are then integrated with the additional design criteria expressed in the contract to develop the ship design. Other criteria examples include NAVSEA Contract Drawings and Contract Guidance Drawings, U.S. Navy Design Data Sheets, U.S. Navy Design Practices and Criteria documents, U.S. Government Specifications, U.S. Government and Industry Standards, and Installation Control Drawings and Interface Control Drawings.

We Ensure Compliance Through Every Step of the Design Process

Gibbs & Cox ship design capabilities range from Preliminary Design through Detailed Design and Post-Delivery Engineering Change modification packages. We rigorously decompose all design requirements by work element at the beginning of Preliminary Design to capture and de-conflict each requirement. This approach allows the resultant design to be as integrated and de-risked as possible, from a requirements standpoint, before starting Functional Design. The requirements decomposition continues into Functional and Detailed Design to ensure that the final design is compliant with all requirements and all requirements can be tested and verified.

Our Ship Design Products Include:

  • Preliminary Design Products – Drawings and reports defining the design at a preliminary level of detail to prove feasibility of the design and identify potential design risks needed for adjudication in the next design phase
  • Contact Design Products – Drawings, analyses, and calculations further defining the ship’s structure and HM&E systems to allow the development of equipment Purchase Technical Specification and material parts list at the start of Functional Design
  • Detailed Design Products – Functional reports and calculations necessary to achieve Navy acceptance of the design. Production Drawings of all structural members and details, including hull, foundations, and joint designs, piping spool piece drawings, and electrical one-line drawings, cableway routing and alarms, sensors and control drawings.
  • Post Delivery Products – Work items to support engineering changes, Inclining and Ship trial support

 

Meeting Our Client’s Needs is the Top Requirement in Every Phase of Naval Ship Design

Our team of experienced ship designers and engineers ensures that all of our designs are fully integrated and compliant with all contractual requirements to meet our client’s expectations and deliver top-quality solutions.