One way to keep your ship operating reliably and efficiently is by keeping its propulsion equipment in top condition. But because your propulsion equipment is underwater and rarely seen, it can feel like a headache to maintain. To ease your pain, here are six expert tips (and a helpful bonus tip) that will help keep your propulsion equipment in top shape.
Maintaining your ship’s propulsion equipment is essential to make sure your ship operates reliably and efficiently. It’s also required by classification societies. The hardware in your propulsion equipment must be inspected every five years for any leaks, damage or abnormal wear.
Because your ship’s propulsion equipment sits under the water, maintenance and overhaul work typically needs to be done in a dry dock. Dry docking your ship is costly and will mean it is out of action and not turning a profit. This is why proper planning is important. Proper planning will help you to ensure the work is done in the shortest possible time and for the lowest possible cost.
How can you ensure your propulsion equipment maintenance goes smoothly? Here are six expert tips for success:
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 analysing 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 minimise costly downtime.
There are several ways to monitor the condition of your propulsion equipment. Monitoring can include, for example:
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. Because a single oil sample does not provide enough information, you should perform regular oil sampling. The sampling frequency will depend on the results of the previous sample.
Vibration measurement is sometimes used to monitor the condition of bearings, for example, to determine if they need replacing. Likewise, temperature and pressure measurements can help detect deviations in equipment performance that could be a sign of ‘hidden’ problems.
To ensure your propulsion equipment is in top condition, you should carry out some maintenance and monitoring tasks every day. For example, you should check:
You should also change oil filters regularly in accordance with the instructions in your operation and maintenance manual. Changing filters regularly will help keep your oil clean.
Make sure you have the right tools onboard to perform these maintenance and monitoring tasks. You will also need appropriate personal protective equipment such as safety glasses, gloves, shoes and protective clothing.
Some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as Wärtsilä, also offer a propulsion condition monitoring service (PCMS) to customers as part of a service agreement. A PCMS analyses data from the vessel’s propulsion equipment to detect wear and tear or performance inefficiency.
This data is combined with information gathered during inspections to build a more complete picture of the condition of your propulsion equipment. When you know the condition of your equipment, you can safely extend maintenance intervals and perform maintenance only when needed. This can save you time and money. Maintaining your propulsion equipment in this way will also help you optimise its performance, including fuel consumption, thrust efficiency and emissions.
When it’s time for maintenance or an overhaul, it’s essential that you have the right spare parts in the right place at the right time. This kind of proper planning will help you avoid costly delays.
But 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 which can help you identify the parts that you might need, then 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.
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 gearset is a typical example of a critical spare part.
If you operate a fleet of vessels that have identical propulsion equipment you could also consider keeping a spare stock of thruster units to reduce vessel downtime. If there is an issue with a thruster on board one of your vessels, you can swap it out for one of the spare units in stock and send the faulty thruster for repair. This provides additional flexibility for your maintenance planning.
Genuine high-quality spare parts and expert support from the OEM can also help you avoid costly downtime and keep your operations compliant. OEM parts are delivered with a full warranty, but before you buy you should check what the warranty covers, what kind of support you can get for troubleshooting and who to contact if you have a problem after the dry docking.
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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 on budget.
Some OEMs, including Wärtsilä, also offer high-quality training courses that will help you maintain and operate your equipment and take your professional skills to the next level.
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Performing upgrades when your ship is in dry dock for maintenance will save you time and money. This is because you’ll get maximum value from your ship’s (unavoidable) downtime.
Upgrades are a great way to future-proof your propulsion equipment because they allow you to take advantage of advances in materials, design techniques and technologies.
Upgrades like energy saving technologies can reduce the overall fuel consumption and emissions of your ship. Using less fuel will bring you even more savings. For example, the EnergoProFin solution for controllable pitch propellers (CPP) and fixed pitch propellers (FPP) provides average fuel savings of 2%, with a payback time of less than one year.
Another example is the EcoControl solution that seeks and combines the optimal propeller pitch with the optimal engine loading. In this way, fuel consumption is reduced to its most efficient level during transit sailing modes. Better fuel efficiency also helps cut emissions.
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 tests you should measure fuel efficiency, fuel consumption and emissions so that you can compare the data with the situation before the upgrade.
Depending on the propulsion equipment onboard your vessel, an upgrade might also affect your vessel’s maintenance plan. You should take care to update your maintenance plan after you have completed an upgrade.
When planning maintenance, it's easy to focus solely on the initial price tag of spare parts, maintenance work and upgrades and forget about the total overall value – and savings – that these investments can bring.
This is particularly true for thrusters and CPPs. Upgrading these types of propulsion equipment can be costly in the short term, but you can make significant operational savings in the long run that will more than pay back your initial investment.
The same is true for spare parts. While genuine high-quality OEM parts may seem costly at first, they offer value that can go far beyond the initial cost. Here are three reasons why OEM parts are more cost effective in the long run:
You should also prepare for the unexpected by creating a contingency plan. This kind of ‘Plan B’ will help you to respond quickly and effectively to situations that may or may not happen. Creating a contingency plan is important because the faster you can recover from a setback, the less potential there is for additional delays.
Regular maintenance and overhauls can improve the reliability and efficiency of your ship’s propulsion equipment – but without detailed planning, maintenance and overhaul work can run late and over budget. The best way to avoid unexpected delays, budget problems and unavailable parts and skilled labour is to plan maintenance and upgrades in advance.
A smart way to do this is with a fixed-fee maintenance planning service or service agreement with your OEM. This can give you cost predictability and ensure that your assets are maintained to the highest possible standard.
Looking for more reasons why proper maintenance planning is a good idea? Download this white paper: Ship maintenance: 5 strong reasons why you really need to plan it.
This article giving 6 expert tips on how to keep propulsion equipment in top shape first appeared as one of Wärtsilä’s Insights stories.
