Keeping your ship’s propulsion equipment in optimal condition is crucial for reliable and efficient operations. According to Wartsila, here are some expert tips to help you achieve this.
Monitoring Propulsion Equipment
Because ship propulsion hardware is located underwater, it is difficult to keep track of the condition of individual components. The first sign of a problem might be when something breaks down. This is why you should continuously monitor the condition of your propulsion equipment. You can do this by collecting and analyzing data on the performance of hardware like controllable pitch propellers (CPPs), thrusters and waterjets. With this data available, you will be better prepared for the dry dock. Better preparation will help you minimize costly downtime.
There are several ways to monitor the condition of your propulsion equipment. Monitoring can include, for example:
- oil analysis
- vibration measurement
- temperature measurement
- pressure measurement
Oil analysis is a common way of monitoring the condition of your propulsion equipment and a typical part of routine, scheduled maintenance. This is because the properties of oil – such as viscosity, cleanliness, acidity, water content, ferrous wear debris, and additives – are a good indication of the condition of your propulsion equipment.
High-quality spare parts
When it’s time for maintenance or an overhaul, you must have the right spare parts in the right place at the right time. This kind of proper planning will help you avoid costly delays.
However identifying and ordering the right spare parts can be challenging, even if you know the condition of your propulsion equipment. Some OEMs such as Wärtsilä offer maintenance sets that make it easier to secure the right parts in advance. These sets include all the parts you need to replace during regular maintenance or an overhaul.
Based on the condition of your propulsion equipment, you might also need to replace other parts that are not part of the regular maintenance or overhaul. These are known as inspection-dependable parts. You can reduce the risk of unpleasant (and potentially costly) delays by ordering inspection-dependable parts in advance, but it’s not always easy to determine which parts you might need. Some OEMs such as Wärtsilä offer a service that can help you identify the parts that you might need, tand hen arrange for them to be delivered to where the work is being carried out or stored at a warehouse ready for use. This way, your maintenance or overhaul is less likely to be delayed, because you have the right parts available when you need them.
Skilled Personnel
Just as with parts, you need to have the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time. Proper planning will give you the best chance of securing these skills in advance. This is particularly important if the work requires specialist skills or knowledge that might be hard to source at short notice. If you leave everything to the last minute you could be faced with significant delays that will lead to major problems with your maintenance schedule and budget.
But even if you plan your propulsion equipment maintenance down to the very last detail, you can still face unexpected delays or budget problems. For example, you might discover that a component or piece of equipment isn’t working properly and you don’t have the right parts available to fix it.
Your propulsion equipment maintenance work might also involve installing, integrating or calibrating new systems. You will need skilled personnel on site to perform and supervise this kind of work too.
If your ship has a CPP and waterjets, for example, proper installation and calibration is critical to ensure their efficiency and longevity. Misaligned thrusters or improperly balanced CPPs can significantly affect equipment performance and cause vibration issues. It is recommended to have skilled field service experts on site performing this kind of work, supervised by a technically competent engineer to speed up the decision-making process. Faster decision-making will help to keep your project on time and budget.
Keeping a stock of spare parts is like having an insurance policy that protects you against unplanned downtime. You should carry out an inventory of your stock regularly to check that it is complete and that the parts are in good condition. Your stock should include critical parts. These are parts that have long lead times and, were they to fail, would prevent your vessel from operating. A thruster gear set is a typical example of a critical spare part.
Updating Maintenance plan
Installing and integrating new technologies during an upgrade can have a surprisingly positive impact on your propulsion equipment’s efficiency and your ship’s overall efficiency. Adding these kinds of technologies can also reduce your ship’s fuel consumption, operational costs and emissions. After installing and integrating new technologies, it is vital to test that they work properly in real operational conditions and that they are delivering the promised improvements.
These kinds of tests are done during sea trials and are particularly important for more complex setups like CPPs or multi-thruster configurations. During these test, you should measure fuel efficiency, fuel consumption, and emissions so that you can compare the data with the situation before the upgrade.
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Source: Wartsila
