NYK and Partners Launch Sound-Analysis Tool

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), MTI, and Nabtesco Corporation have developed an electric diagnostic tool that records, visualizes, and analyzes the operational sounds of a vessel's engine plant for early anomaly detection.

The device has been named “Kirari MUSE” and can store operational sounds from the equipment as data and use it to diagnose equipment conditions.

Listening rods made of elongated metal are already widely used for diagnosing equipment conditions. By placing a listening rod on a turbine, motor, or other equipment, the operational sound of the object can be captured without being affected by ambient noise, and invisible abnormalities can be detected. Listening rods, however, present difficulties because the sound cannot be accumulated as data and shared with third parties.

Kirari MUSE comprises an electric listening rod, a dedicated smartphone as an operation device, and PC software. The electric rod has a recording function, and the PC software enables the recording, analysis, and sharing of sounds by seafarers during patrols as chart and graph data. An alarm appears on the software if the sound data deviates from the set reference data. The dedicated smartphone is utilized for operations such as selecting the device to be inspected, recording memos during inspection, and transferring the data to the software.

By accumulating sound as data, Kirari MUSE helps companies to compare the sound data with threshold and past data without being reliant on the experience and knowledge of individual seafarers. In addition, Kirari MUSE enables companies to share the accumulated big data with ships and shore, such as operating companies, shipmanagement companies, classification societies, and equipment manufacturers to enhance support for diagnosis and repair.

Nabtesco launched sale of the device on October 18.