Transas Marine has released a new simulator product, which is a stand-alone Engine Room simulator, ERS Solo. This simulator broadens the company's existing product range of Engine Room simulators, which includes the PC-based ERS 2000 and the ERS 3000, which is fitted with real engine control room panels for monitoring and control of engine room machinery. The ERS Solo possesses all the functionality of ERS 2000, other than its on-line Instructor functions. With the ERS Solo simulator, the Instructor-generated tasks are performed in off-line mode. The main simulated machinery includes the ship's diesel propulsion power plant, with models for two-stroke and four-stroke diesel engines, an electric power plant and a number of auxiliary systems. The main purpose of this new simulator development from Transas is to provide a cost-effective but efficient instrument suitable for both preliminary and knowledge refreshment training of Engine Room watch-keeping personnel. ERS Solo can be run on Intel Pentium - II - 400 equipped with a 17-in. or higher true-color monitor with a resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 pixels.
A new set of dedicated hardware for the ERS series has already been designed and was made available during Summer 2000. Due to increased demand for Engine
Room simulator technologies, the range of software functions for ERS systems has also been expanded. A new version of the ERS simulator is already approaching the final stages of development and will be presented to end - users in the near future. The new features of this upgraded ERS include a Distillation Plant system simulator, which has already been added to the existing functionality, a Fire Extinguishing alarm system, CO2 Extinguishing system, as well as a Foam and Sea Water Extinguishing system, all of which are currently under development.