Engine Room Machinery News

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) announced that the engine control console installed on the bridge of the Kinkasan Maru was selected for a "Ship Heritage Certificate" from the Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineers (JASNAOE). Kinkasan Maru (1961-1979) was a general cargo ship, built at Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding  Tamano Shipyard in 1961, and operated by MOL. The society noted that the Kinkasan Maru's system represented a pioneering step in the development of automated engines. It was world's first automated ship, which adopted both the bridge control system - directly operating the main engine from the bridge, and the central monitoring control system - intensively monitoring and controlling the engine room machinery in the control room on the lower level of the engine room.

Noble Drilling (U.S.) LLC was charged with environmental and maritime crimes for operating the drill ship Noble Discoverer and the drilling unit Kulluk in violation of federal law in Alaska in 2012, the Department of Justice announced. Under the terms of a plea agreement filed in federal court today, Noble will plead guilty to eight felony offenses, pay $12.2 million dollars in fines and community service payments, implement a comprehensive Environmental Compliance Plan, and will be placed on probation for four years. In addition, Noble’s parent corporation, Noble Corporation plc, headquartered in London, England, will implement an Environmental…

There are roughly 30 liquified natural gas (LNG)-powered marine vessels currently active in today’s global seas, with some estimates showing approximately 30 new builds expected by 2014. With new commitments and orders for LNG-powered ships taking place every month, the potential that LNG-powered vessels will play an important part in shaping the future of the maritime industry is no longer speculation – it is now a fact. Helping to drive the switch from diesel, steam and even…

The U.S. Coast Guard detained motor vessel Stargold Trader to its berth in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, until the safety deficiencies found onboard are corrected by the vessel’s crew. Port State Control officers from Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Portland, discovered the discrepancies during a routine inspection of the 618-foot Panamanian flagged vessel. A majority of the safety discrepancies were related to fire hazards, which included excessive oil leaks within engine room machinery and disrepair of the vessel’s primary firefighting system.

ClassNK, IHI Marine United (IHIMU), Diesel United (DU) and IBM Japan have announced they will jointly develop a ship maintenance management system to help reduce ship lifecycle cost. The jointly developed system, which will make use of the latest condition monitoring sensor technology and data analysis systems, will be offered by ClassNK as a cloud-based service to shipowners, managers and operators from June 2013. As ships face dramatically changing ocean conditions, appropriate maintenance and condition monitoring of on-board machinery is essential to ensuring smooth operations. With bunker prices near historic highs, shipowners are increasingly turning their attention to maintenance management schemes utilizing on-board sensors data and diagnostic analysis tools to prevent malfunctions…

Wärtsilä's two-stroke engines have been chosen for eight Chinese bulk carriers. The order was placed by Beijing-based Minsheng Financial Leasing Co. Ltd. Wärtsilä's Chinese licensee, Hefei Rong'An Power Machinery Co Ltd (Rong'An), a member of the Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Co Ltd (RSHI), will build the engines. The Wärtsilä RT-flex58TB two-stroke engines will be installed in a series of eight 76,000 dwt Panamax bulk carriers. The first vessel is scheduled to be launched in March 2011.

Ship Tracks South of , a satellite image acquired by NASA on March 4, 2009. On March 4, 2009, the skies over the northeast were streaked with clouds that form around the particles in ship exhaust. This pair of images shows how these ship tracks are different from the natural marine clouds in the same area. The top image is a natural-color (photo-like) view of the ship tracks. The image below reveals more information than a picture: it shows the size of the cloud droplets. Both…

Industries Co., Ltd. For many years now, contracts for ships and floating units to operate in an offshore environment have been much-prized value-added goals at Samsung. These include not only shuttle but drill ships, floating storage and offloading units (FSOs), with their derivative production types (FPSOs), crane ships, and various types of floating and fixed platforms. Some of the more interesting ships that have been created here have included a trio of deepwater drill ships for Reading & Bates capable of working in water depths down to 3000m, the 312,500 dwt FPSO Bonga for operating off Nigeria, and the Saibos FDS, a pipelayer/crane vessel with a jib capacity of 600tonnes.

The Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in Anchorage is investigating a second vessel for possible tampering with pollution prevention equipment to treat oily water aboard another Panamanian flagged vessel. The motor vessel Sohoh, a refrigerated freight ship, was found to have equipment capable of being used by the crew as a bypass of the ship's oily water separator system. During a routine boarding of the vessel Coast Guard inspectors discovered evidence of the bypass, which could allow the direct discharge of oily water overboard from the vessel. The oily water separator is designed to mechanically separate water from the oily sludge mixture produced by engine room machinery.

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.

In August 2002, Transas successfully commissioned its Engine Room Simulator at the Colombo International Nautical and Engineering College in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This is the first Transas simulator installed in this country. The ERS 2000 Version 5.4.2 supplied to the College comprises one instructor station and three interactive trainee workstations with full set of simulator’s modules. The installation was followed by a standard 3-days operational and instructor’s training course organized by Transas specialists. Transas Marine’s ERS 2000 is a PC-based networked simulator, which includes up to 12 interactive Trainee workstations operating under Instructor control and monitoring.