Wärtsilä Expands Propulsion Monitoring Services

Wärtsilä expanded its offering in propulsion monitoring services. The Wärtsilä Propulsion Condition Monitoring Service (PCMS), introduced to the market in 2010, will now feature expanded functionalities and is now available in two editions - PCMS Starter and PCMS Professional. The need for certainty of operations and long-term maintenance planning is fulfilled with a new functionality - Dynamic Lifetime Prognosis (DLP).

Wärtsilä Propulsion Condition Monitoring Service is a solution for monitoring propulsion equipment. It provides the customer with real-time advice and periodic reports concerning the condition of the machinery and information for maintenance planning. With PCMS customers can enhance their installations' availability, reliability and profitability, whilst reducing risks and the maintenance costs of their assets.

Wärtsilä said it is committed in delivering innovative, trustworthy, and state-of-the-art monitoring services. Currently, Wärtsilä is recognized as a condition monitoring service supplier by three of the major classification societies, namely the American Bureau of Shipping, Lloyd's Register and DNV-GL. In February 2014, Wärtsilä was the first company to attain this type of recognition from three of the major classification societies.

"Since its introduction in 2010, we have installed more than 200 PCMS systems. We have now carefully analyzed our customers' needs, changing business environment and classification requirements that have evolved over time. Based on all this information, we have developed the versions to meet the different customer needs," said Frank Velthuis, Manager of Wärtsilä's CBM Centre Propulsion.

Wärtsilä's new PCMS is available in Professional and Starter editions. Both versions enable overhaul intervals to be extended and promote optimal condition of the equipment.

The Professional edition also provides long-term predictability in maintenance planning and is superior in terms of detecting potential failures. Thus it's especially recommended for vessels with a high criticality of operations. Typical applications include drilling, cable-laying, heavy lifting and seismic research operations.

The Starter edition is tailored for customers with prime focus on reliability and reduction of operational costs. Typical applications for this edition include offshore supply, anchor handling, towing and diving support.  

Traditionally, condition monitoring can detect potential failures, but it cannot prevent a thruster being run beyond its useful lifetime. Potential failures are more likely to occur as a thruster ages, and can happen when least expected. The Professional edition of Wärtsilä's new PCMS provides long-term predictability through a new feature - Dynamic Lifetime Prognosis (DLP).

DLP can be used to determine when a thruster should be overhauled. It predicts the future reliability based on prior and expected usage, including load, RPM, lubrication oil temperature and contamination.

With PCMS and depending on usage, condition and seals configuration of the propulsion equipment the interval between overhauls can be extended to as much as 10 years. By optimizing the overhaul intervals with DLP, the overall profitability of the asset can be maximized.

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