Hawaii Regional Maintenance Center Completes Emergent Repair on USS Makin Island (LHD 8)
The Hawaii Regional Maintenance Center (HRMC) team at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility is the Navy’s first responders when it comes to an emergent repair availability (ERAV) on surface ships in the Indo-Pacific Region.Pearl Harbor sits in a strategic location and is a hub for many emergent repairs for ships transiting through the Pacific Ocean. One successful ERAV took place last fall when the USS Makin Island (LHD 8) departed San Diego on its…
Plastlock Pipe Coupling Launched at SMM
Teekay Couplings is launching its new Teekay Plastlock Pipe Coupling on September 9, the first day of the SMM marine trade fair in Hamburg, Germany. Enabling simple, rapid and permanent joining of plain-ended plastic pipes, the product will greatly increase the ability of the marine industry to specify plastic pipes in builds and therefore realise the cost, time, space, weight and simplification benefits of the material. Key to the new product’s capability is its patented dynamic axial restraint system…
Pumps and Piping: A Curious Turn to the Right
Owners and shipyards come to the realization that alternative composition piping and pumps represent the way forward. You cannot put a vessel to work without pumps, valves and piping. Too often, product selection is left to the discretion of those who view these items as inconsequential decisions, driven primarily by not much more than initial cost. That mindset, in an atmosphere of cost-cutting, the quest for fuel economy and reduction in total lifecycle costs, is changing – albeit ever so slowly. Led in part by success in the military and naval sector, workboat operators are now taking a hard look at both plastic and glass reinforced epoxy (GRE) piping, as well as pumps and valves built with alternative composite materials.
USCG Reports: Small Fire, Important Lessons
The U.S. Recently in the North East an 83-ft long passenger ferry which has the capacity to carry 306 persons experienced a small engine room fire. The vessel was just off its dock at the time the fire started and onboard were 110 persons. Because of the nearness to the dock, the vessel’s Captain chose to disembark the passengers prior to manually activating the engine room CO2 system and closing the main fuel stop valve. The CO2 system extinguished the fire and when the local fire department arrived later they found the port main engine’s exhaust insulation smoldering.