American Society For Testing And Materials News

MAN Engines said it has approved all marine engines from its current product range for use with renewable diesel fuel in line with the standard EN15940 in Europe and the US-American specification ASTM D975 of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) with immediate effect. This will allow customers to replace conventional petroleum-based diesel fuel with "green" or renewable diesel fuel. Renewable diesel fuel is obtained from waste and residues of animal and plant origin…

Coast Guard R&D Center’s JMTF is a big part of the nation’s environmental research efforts. In 1972, the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center (RDC) established the Fire and Safety Test Detachment (FSTD), which later became the Joint Maritime Test Facility (JMTF), at Coast Guard Sector Mobile in Mobile, Alabama. As part of the unit’s establishment, test facilities were also built on nearby Little Sand Island in Mobile Bay. Since its inception, multiple retired commercial vessels were used as test platforms ending with the State of Maine, which was removed in 2010.

The Coast Guard Thursday released the final report on the investigation of the parasailing accident involving the small passenger vessel Tied High off the coast of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., in 2009. Several factors contributed to the deaths of two people killed August 28, 2009, while parasailing with the vessel, the report said. The investigation found the initiating event for this casualty was the failure of the winch to retrieve the passengers in flight during the storm and high winds that occurred that day. Weather in this case had a constant negative impact during this casualty, along with three primary causal factors involving human error on the part of the company owner and vessel master…

Reading tea leaves on a boat underway is an exercise in frustration because just as the leaves start to settle, another wave comes along and changes the picture. Similarly, trying to foresee trends in the marine industry. Just as you see things shaping up, a change occurs and the industry is re-shuffled. However I believe that I can discuss three particular trends that are part of our collective future. The first of these is the fact that the marine industry will continue to see a growing body of regulations affecting how we design, build, and operate vessels. Some examples of the alphabet soup that we must deal with include ADA, STCW, ISM, EPA, etc. These regulations are being created by organizations both within and outside of the marine industry. Many marine regulators such as the U.S.

Octel Petroleum Specialties, the UK fuel additive manufacturer, has made a significant breakthrough in the science of predicting the stability of heavy fuel oils. The development could lead to greater efficiency in critical applications such as estimating the oil quality before bunkering and evaluating the benefit of additives for upgrading Bunker “C” fuel oils. Bunker "C" oil is currently produced by blending the oil remaining after the refining process with lighter oil. The main destination for Bunker “C” is ships using diesel engines for propulsion. Traditionally, predicting the stability of Bunker "C" is fraught with difficulty, largely because stability is ill defined and also because previous methods have been somewhat subjective. This, however, is about to change.

Albert V. Brandemarte has received the L. L. Wyman Memorial Award for 2002 from American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International. The award is given annually in recognition of meritorious contributions to standardization in the field of metallography through the work of ASTM Committee E04. Brandemarte serves as chief of metallography for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division's Metals Department in Bethesda. He has been a member of the ASTM committee E04 for 14 years and served as committee chairman from 1998 to 2002. Through his work on the committee, Al became a nationally recognized expert in metallography, a critical tool in most Navy ship failure analyses. The award is named for L. L. Wyman, chairman of the Metallography Committee from 1938 through 1966.

Because the exposure to the marine environment and motions of a vessel, slips and falls are a significant source of personal injuries in floating equipment, probably substantially greater than most industry groups. Although there are a good number of publications, books and articles written regarding the subject of slip and falls, there are almost none addressing the conditions found in a marine environment, which influence slips and falls. The generally accepted industry standard is that a static anti-slip coefficient of friction of .50 or above is safe on a dry walkway surface. A value below .50 indicates an unsafe walkway surface.