What has Happened at the Condition Based Maintenance Conference – Day 2?
IMarEST – organized a condition based maintenance conference at Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium – the event sponsored by
- Rolls Royce
- Pruftechnik
- Info Marine
- UE Systems
Though it was a tight working day, many turned up on time to the conference and some rigged up their laptop thereby they can continue to work simultaneously while attending the conference.
The day started with a gentleman from Hong Kong, Mr Haydn Shum, Regional Manager, UE Systems taking the stage. Mr Shum started the day with a stunning presentation where he made the audience listen to ultrasound tones from various equipment.
Have an under lubricated bearing?
He proved that an ultrasound equipment can really find out an under-lubricated bearing and demonstrated that the betterment of ultrasound when the same bearing is adequately lubricated.
So don’t worry about under-lubrication folks!
Just get an ultrasound equipment and you can literally hear the lubrication.
The next presenter was Mr Sivakumar Nadarajan, Advanced Technologist, Rolls-Royce.
Mr Sivakumar is pursuing his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at the National University of Singapore. With vast credentials in electrical and electronics engineering, Mr Sivakumar has applied for 15 patents and his research is extensively based on condition monitoring & failure prognosis of electrical machines and power electronics.
One of the most interesting presentations at the 6th Condition Based Maintenance 
conference was an exciting presentation from Mr Ken Soh, CIO, BH Group. Mr Ken is responsible for the group information communication and technology (ICT) practices and technology based business development initiatives.
Mr Ken explained many interesting cases of cyber crimes and security breaches, with his own first-hand experience on phishing while his system got hacked.
Many top companies hire hackers to hack/fix the loopholes in the IT security systems and Mr Ken shared many interesting IT related insights where the audience were left jaw-dropped the whole session.
After that Mr Shengwei Wu, Managing Consultant, DNV GL, took the stage to explain DNV 
GL’s concept of Maintenance management and optimization techniques.
He further explained about the 8 major building blocks of any maintenance schedule, which every company has to look forward adopting such strategies. He also spoke about the DNV GL – Ecoinsight and Fleet performance monitoring solutions whereby the ship and the shore staffs can combine CBM with PBM.
Then came Mr Amitava Talukdar, Technical Director, Viswa Lab, a Masters degree holder in 
Precision Engineering, has led a team of engineers to develop a state-of-the-art energy efficiency monitoring system which has been successfully installed on board many ships.
Mr Amit explained about the condition based maintenance concepts as well as the theory and measurement of hull & propeller of a ship which are the main factors leading to an increase in fuel consumption.
The most important highlight of his speech was the way he explained about the wave making resistance concept appealing to everyone.
He further demonstrated how a live energy efficiency system works? Where the data gets recorded, processed and analyzed for a particular ship under study.
The last speaker for the day was Mr Devarajan, Technical Director, GMS Shipping.
He started his presentation in a jovial way by comparing the maintenance of the ship to maintaining a marriage and how it would prove costly if left unattended.
The ex-chief engineer and Technical Superintendent from various companies like Maersk, Shell, and Brightoil, explained about his services on ship repair, lay-up, pre-docking inspections, audits and other surveys which could help the ship managers to plan and budget accordingly.
The conference came to an end with an exciting panel discussion and below are some of the questions raised and answered well.
- Should CBM be supplementary to the PMS?
- Why Class is not agreeing to the CBM?
- Should we employ CBM experts or just buy equipments?
- Is CBM reliable?
- Difference between CBM and PBM
- Evolution of lubricant analysis
- Stern Tube oil analysis and condition monitoring
- Is CBM a responsibility of shipowners or ship managers?
- Why shipmanagers do not market out with CBM as a tool for maintenance?
- Why leading shipping companies are shy to go forward with CBM?
There are many other interesting questions with great answers and insights.
Watch out and follow MFAME for more interesting updates from the conference.
