Maintenance Tools News

Mercury Marine opened its new, purpose-built distribution center to support its parts and accessories business. The new 512,000 square foot facility is located near Indianapolis, Ind., a major thoroughfare connecting Mercury’s global customers that will improve delivery and service and will add much needed capacity for scale, stability, and reduced logistics costs, the company said.Mercury’s current distribution facility at its global headquarters in Fond du Lac, Wis., will be repurposed to support its propulsion systems…

ABS and Chevron Shipping Company LLC have embarked on a digital fleet management journey.As a first step, the Suezmax lightering vessel Pegasus Voyager has become the first vessel in Chevron’s fleet to qualify for the ABS maintenance optimization notation SMART-MHM (Machinery Health Monitoring), with more vessels expected to follow. The ship is also the first ABS-classed to receive the notation.ABS says this is just the beginning of the journey to condition-based maintenance for the Chevron’s fleet of 28 vessels.

Machine reliability is a top priority and continuing challenge in marine applications, which operate in harsh conditions and at remote locations far from port and repair facilities. Ship operators can help keep machinery running efficiently by equipping their maintenance departments and crews with a full complement of new-generation maintenance tools. These tools, which range from high-accuracy alignment systems to precise automatic lubricators, can help avert premature failures and reduce the need for repairs at sea.

PTS Pro enables users to target unplanned downtime with advanced maintenance planning. PTS Pro, the latest addition to the Parker Tracking System (PTS) suite of products, gives subscribers a proactive tool against unplanned downtime, while maximizing uptime and profitability. Developed by Parker Hannifin, a company in motion and control technologies, “The new PTS Pro features powerful asset tracking and maintenance tools that extend the capabilities of the original PTS application,” said Technology Manager, Bill Sayavich.

During a conference held at the European Parliament in Brussels, Hydrex was presented an award for the ECOTEC-STC project which was named as one of the best LIFE projects completed in 2010. To select the best LIFE-Environment projects, a lengthy identification and evaluation process was followed, based on a set of best practice criteria. These were developed by EU Member States in collaboration with the European Commission. The objective was to help improve the dissemination of LIFE project results by clearly identifying those projects which could have the most positive impact on the environment if widely applied. Over a 3.5 year period…