Shipbuilding

Heavy plates in shipbuilding are used in various locations of the hull like reinforcement plates for crane foundations, fabrication of winches but also below the engine block for instance.

Especially in the case that heavy deck equipment is mounted onto the vessel, the required plate will need to be relatively thicker. Consequently, these foundation plates often also require Z35 testing which confirms the requirements in the Z-direction of the plate.

As mentioned earlier, other applications for “thick” EH36 material are seen for deck equipment as like offshore winches, pipe laying equipment, tensioners, turret mooring systems and cranes. These products are also produced under class and therefore require the appropriate 3.2 class material.

Vessels which are built to operate in “cold” area’s require low temperature impact tested material like EH36 ( impact tested at -40°C ) and sometimes even FH36 ( impact tested at -60°C ) is used in certain parts of these vessel.

Another trend in the shipbuilding industry is the need for lighter construction, therefore the grade EH40 is becoming more common. This material grade has a superior yield point compared to EH36 and therefore designers are able to use thinner plates with similar strength.