1. Robotic Hull Block Welding Gantries Overhead gantries carrying six-axis robots with envelopes up to 20,000 x 6,000 x 3,000 mm, built around your block size and bay layout. Camera-based seam tracking compensates for fit-up variation in real time.
A hull block welding gantry holds position at ten-ton scale while the weld runs metres across curved plate in open yard conditions. That is why shipbuilding welding automation is built differently. Hull panels carry 12 to 16 metres of butt and fillet welds per block, stiffeners sit at tight pitch with one-sided access, and every seam is inspected to classification society rules. As a result, the system must deliver stable arc parameters across long travel with real-time seam tracking. That is the production environment Drupe builds for.
Approved supplier to L&T, Godrej and heavy structural fabricators across India. Every system is engineered and fabricated at our 300-ton MIDC Taloja floor, sized for the throughput shipyard production demands.
1. Robotic Hull Block Welding Gantries Overhead gantries carrying six-axis robots with envelopes up to 20,000 x 6,000 x 3,000 mm, built around your block size and bay layout. Camera-based seam tracking compensates for fit-up variation in real time.
2. Long Linear Tracks for Panel Lines 7th-axis robot tracks with strokes up to 20,000 mm and payloads up to 5,000 kg. Track, clamps and support units built in-house and matched to existing yard steelwork.
3. CNC Plate and Bevel Cutting Gantry and table-type CNC machines with Hypertherm plasma and oxy-fuel. Drupe’s Gen-3 bevel head delivers bevel prep in the same pass as the profile cut.
4. Flex Track for Curved Hull Seams Portable magnetic-mount rail for curved seams where a fixed gantry cannot reach. Holds consistent standoff on double-curved plate for MIG/MAG and submerged arc.
5. Rail Clamps and Support Units Precision-ground clamps, support units and pinion assemblies rated for yard-scale load. Same components inside every Drupe gantry, available separately.
From your first drawing to lifetime service, every project runs the same disciplined path.
In shipbuilding, a hull block welding gantry has to work in yard conditions: open bays, dust, temperature swings and plate that is never perfectly flat.
As a result, the automation has to be robust enough to hold weld parameters while the environment fights it. Drupe has already built for that environment: for example, our gantries carry robots across 20-metre spans at ten-ton scale with sub-millimetre repeatability, and our linear tracks run the full length of a panel line without losing position.
In addition, because the gantry structure, the track, the controls and the peripherals are all engineered and fabricated in-house at MIDC Taloja, any problem on site is handled end to end by one team. Our approved supplier standing with L&T and Godrej means our systems have already cleared the procurement audits heavy-industry buyers run. Engineered, commissioned and supported in India by a 150-person team, with proven hull block welding gantry systems already running on Indian production floors.
The system is engineered for low-distortion welding first: controlled travel speed, stable heat input and fixed torch positioning reduce the variables that cause distortion on thin stainless and mild steel plate. Because the gantry holds the robot at a consistent standoff across the full panel, heat input stays within the qualified range seam after seam. Weld data capture can be integrated where your QA process or the classification society standard requires it. We work to your WPS and inspection regime rather than asking you to change it.
Yes. For flat and lightly curved panels, the gantry system with seam tracking handles the work. For double-curved plate and areas the gantry cannot reach, our flex track system mounts magnetically to the hull surface and holds the torch at a consistent standoff and travel speed. As a result, the same yard can automate both flat block assembly and curved hull seams without bringing in a second supplier.
Yes. Because the gantry, the track and the controls are all built by Drupe, extending a track run, adding a second robot station or widening the gantry span is an engineering change on an existing platform, not a new procurement. We design the initial system with expansion in mind so that adding capacity later does not require rebuilding the structure.
