How shipyards shape curved steel plates

How are steel plates bent to form a ship's hull?

By several methods, including pre-curving, heating and bending, rolling, hydraulic pressing, and fitting plates in place; the method depends on the hull and production run.

There is no single plate-shaping technique because hull form and production volume dictate the tooling. A plate can arrive with some curvature, be heated and bent, pass through rollers, or be formed with hydraulic force. Repeated shapes justify specialized presses or rolling equipment that make each additional piece cheaper and more consistent. One-off ship sections instead demand flexible methods and careful fitting, so the yard balances capital equipment against the number of identical shapes required.