Fleet condition monitoring takes off & pays off

Condition monitoring is rapidly becoming an industry standard that pays off. Early movers increase the bottom line through well predicted maintenance.

Posidonia exhibition, Athens. Rovsing Dynamics, a MAN Diesel approved supplier of condition monitoring, reports that it is rapidly becoming an industry standard that pays off. Early movers are well ahead and increase their bottom line by saving time and money from well predicted and planned maintenance plus omitted open-up inspections.

In the area of vessel condition monitoring a lot has happened since Posidonia 2006. After initial testing, the pioneers see significant financial and maintenance benefits and proceed with roll-out of the predictive maintenance system to more vessels based on a clear condition based maintenance strategy.  Also owners who before had a ‘wait and see’ or ‘damage only happens to the neighbour’ approach begin to say ‘me too’.

“Our customers monitor critical machinery for various reasons’, says Thea Larsen, CEO of Rovsing Dynamics. ‘The potential of saving 30% dry docking time or $ 200 - 600,000 in repair costs by avoiding damage to a main engine, turbocharger or thruster is one benefit. But a large shipping company, typically hit by one engine damage each year, also suffers an annual revenue loss of several million $ from a vessel out of service. For others the key objective is to increase vessel availability by skipping costly, time-consuming open-up inspections and only conduct condition based maintenance. In this way a large tanker owner aims to save $ 6.9 million annually.”

Also with the present scarcity of dry dock space available there are both time and cost benefits from being well prepared well in advance of entering a repair yard.

Many of the world’s largest shipping companies and owners of tankers, ferries and car carriers have partnered with Rovsing Dynamics to implement continuous condition monitoring. Recently, Hapag-Lloyd chose bearing wear monitoring for six new containerships after having tested a solution, which also monitors turbochargers on three vessels in service.

“It is important to distinguish between an alarm system and a true condition monitoring solution,’ Thea Larsen emphasizes. ‘What most of our customers really want is predictive maintenance information. Therefore, many prefer our scalable solution, which can monitor ALL mission critical machinery including engine bearing wear and provides warnings well in advance. It helps them optimize maintenance planning. Seamless integration with alarm, maintenance management and other systems plus off-line measurements are other requirements we have fulfilled.”

“There are many clear indicators that condition monitoring is becoming standard on maritime vessels, as it has been in e.g. power plants for long,” says Thea Larsen. “The early adopters have moved from the test phase to implementation programmes for their new buildings too. And engine designers and classification societies are now ready to support ship owners, adopting a condition based maintenance strategy.”

As the first engine designer, MAN Diesel recently issued recommendations to completely omit regular open-up inspections of the crank-train bearings of certain engine types - and only carry out condition based overhaul if the engine features an approved bearing wear monitoring system such as OPENpredictor™ from Rovsing Dynamics.

Classification societies also see condition based maintenance as an optimal strategy. Germanischer Lloyd and DNV are ready with guidelines and survey arrangements, based on audits instead of open-up inspections, for ship owners with an approved condition monitoring programme.

“The general idea of condition monitoring is of course to confirm that everything is OK and the vessel can continue its operation. Secondly, customers confirm examples of bearing wear and other faults, which were predicted in due time for the crew to take action before costly damage and unscheduled time loss occurred. It proves continuous condition monitoring as a mission critical tool, which soon pays off,” Thea Larsen concludes.

Contacts
For more information about customer value from condition monitoring, visit Rovsing Dynamics at the Posidonia exhibition in Athens, June 2-6, 2008, stand 544, hall 5.

For general information about Rovsing Dynamics, please contact CEO Thea Larsen, tel. +45 4690 7200, e-mail thl@(if you can see this please update your browser)rovsing-dynamics.com.

For high resolution photos, please contact Marketing Manager Annette Risberg, tel. +45 2441 1160, e-mail ari@(if you can see this please update your browser)rovsing-dynamics.com.