Gecko Robotics to Demo Weld Inspection for Columbia Submarine Program

Pittsburgh company Gecko Robotics has won a contract to demonstrate advanced weld inspection services for the US Navy’s Columbia-class nuclear submarine program.

Under the agreement, the firm will employ its robotic digital inspection solutions and data capabilities to evaluate welding integrities under the Columbia submarines’ shipbuilding process.

The approach will decrease the risk of unexpected weld conditions and corresponding timelines while enabling skilled personnel to attend to more important tasks.

Gecko wrote that the project will also validate the return on investment of the company’s weld inspection solutions across several areas of the Columbia-class supply chain.

Work for the contract will be facilitated in partnership with Texas-based BlueForge Alliance.

“We are proud to grow our partnership with the US Navy beyond helping get ships through the maintenance process faster, to providing advanced manufacturing capabilities for the Columbia-class program,” Gecko Robotics Co-Founder and CEO Jake Loosararian stated.

“Demand from customers for more data on the front-end of the manufacturing process to help implement better predictive maintenance is growing – and we’re looking forward to starting this work with the Columbia sub program.”

The Columbia vessels are being developed to replace the US Department of Defense’s aging Ohio-class submarines that have been in service since the 1980s.