Ship Production Rigging Planning Guide

A critical element in shipbuilding, the rigging process currently has limited documentation to guide and instruct those employees involved, impacting schedule and use of resources, as well as effecting training and safety issues. The project team, led by NASSCO (USA), developed the Rigging Planning Guide based on a review of domestic regulatory requirements and standards for rigging within and outside the shipbuilding industry.

The Rigging Planning Guide is comprised of the following:

• Lift Check Sheet – quick reference sheet providing a list of questions or checks which a rigging engineer should consider before carrying out a lift design
• Approach Lift Guidance (and training) – refers to the Lift Check Sheet and provides further details for engineers if an explanation is not apparent in the Lift Check Sheet
• Rigging Lift Common Component Catalog – a comprehensive index of common rigging equipment

Feedback among USA based shipyards has been positive, with several yards looking into ways to utilize the guide. Additionally, developing and publishing the Rigging Guide has led to proposed expansion of current ASME rigging and falsework design standards.

Future Plans:

• Expand catalog of equipment
• Additional training information
• Review and compare data on synthetic slings deficiencies
• Methods of reducing or limiting complexity of finite element models
• Guide for classically analyzing blocks based on structure type