Abstract
In this paper, we give the parametric equation of the Bishop frame for a timelike sweeping surface with a unit speed timelike curve in Minkowski 3-space. We introduce a new geometric invariant to explain the geometric properties and local singularities of this timelike surface. We derive the sufficient and necessary conditions for this timelike surface to be a timelike developable ruled surface. Afterwards, we take advantage of singularity theory to give the classification of singularities of this timelike developable surface. Furthermore, we give some representative examples to show the applications of the theoretical results.