Imtech Marine’s Advanced Support Agreements, which include 24/7 remote Monitoring & Maintenance, are raising interest among ship owners. Recently, Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) signed a support contract for a second crane vessel. The Imtech Marine support agreement covers all of the systems onboard, including VSAT, computers, navigation and communication equipment. The maritime transport and offshore construction services company has been a customer of Imtech Marine and Radio Holland for many years and in December 2011, SHL decided to place its crane vessel Oleg Strashnov under an Advanced Support Agreement. And just a few months later in April 2012, the company has decided to do the same for a second crane vessel, the Stanislav Yudin.
“It is crucial for us to be able to do things remotely,” said Peter Dekkers, Technical Superintendent at SHL. He gives the example that Oleg Strashnov has recently been working in the Indian Ocean and it can take six weeks to get a permit for a service engineer to get onboard if there is a problem. “When the vessel went offshore, the crew discovered there were certain issues with the telephone system but Imtech Marine was able to carry out a remote repair, ensuring that we had the telephone lines in all of the right positions on the ship and that all the connections were there for ingoing and outgoing calls. But imagine if this had happened and we had to wait for an engineer to get a permit! Imtech Marine has three dedicated Global Technical Assistance Centres in Rotterdam, Houston and Singapore, enabling it to give clients round the clock support.
In another example, Imtech Marine can spot any rises in equipment temperatures. “When a working temperature is between 40-50 degrees Celsius, we can take action if we see it getting higher, thus preventing any problems before the equipment starts to fail. By monitoring, we can carry out preventive maintenance and avert mass failure of equipment or we can advise the crew to take action if we cannot repair it remotely. Then Imtech Marine can get the right spare parts and an engineer ready for the next port of call.”