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Maintenance Of Equipment / Machinery On Marine & Offshore Assets
Importance of Maintenance of Marine & Offshore Assets
Investment in health and safety measures are always a priority to marine and offshore companies, especially when the ecosystem is exposed extensively to corrosive environments due to its vulnerable nature. With that being said, corrosion and degradation are pressing issues that continue to challenge marine and offshore assets, which can be problematic when handled ineffectively. The persistent usage of marine and offshore assets or prolonged cold staking (keeping the assets idle) may also cause fatigue failures that subsequently lead to workplace health and safety hazards.
Hence, proper and effective maintenance of marine and offshore assets is important not only for operational reliability and good efficiency, but also to extend the life cycle of its components and reduce degradation or failures of the machinery. Periodic preventive maintenance of such assets are an essential part to the marine & offshore businesses.
Such maintenance shall be carried out in the most cost-effective manner without compromising seaworthiness and operational worthiness of the marine & offshore assets, as well as the safety standards of manpower and operability of materials. Above all, the maintenance of marine and offshore assets will help minimise technical downtime, risk of breakdown and resultant of off-hire.
3 Common Types of Maintenance:
Planned preventive maintenance is the most important aspect to ensure successful operations and life cycle management of any offshore asset or plant. It can be done in more ways than one, including identifying and forecasting the maintenance activities at intervals based on recommendations by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), lessons learnt from industry practices, or even checking on the condition of the spares and other material requirements for those activities. Meanwhile, it can also be done by planning the procurement actions and getting the correct quantity and quality material on time, as well as mobilizing the required skilled manpower to execute the maintenance in timely manner. A suitable digital tool known as the Preventive Maintenance System (software) can also help in efficiently managing this process.
Painting of ship hull
The PMS has the following characteristics / functions including but not limited to:
· The PMS is electronic and centered around various Hull and Machinery components installed on board the offshore & marine assets.
· The PMS contains all functions, equipment, and systems requiring planned inspections and maintenance at specified intervals. This includes all safety equipment on board and the inspection and maintenance routines recommended by OEM, industry standards and as required by current regulations.
· Unless amended by past performance / learnings, all PMS routines are based on manufacturer’s recommendations.
· The PMS allows for planning of upcoming maintenance. The system also maintains a work done history records for all equipment.
· Each maintenance routine in PMS is supported by job description summarizing the task which are to be carried out. These job descriptions are based on manufacturer’s instructions.
· The system identifies all critical measuring and testing equipment and contains records of calibration and/or verification and adjustment of the identified components.
· The PMS enables to maintain inventory of spares, including critical parts and provides an indication of the spare parts required for each maintenance for better planning.
All maintenance activities must be performed in compliance with safety standards and environment protection policy as well as guidelines.
Benefits of Planned Preventative Maintenance in Offshore & Marine Industry:
- Better reliability & efficiency
- Saves energy
- Avoids emergencies
- Protects your crew
- Extends the life of offshore assets
Predictive maintenance, also referred to as condition-based maintenance, involves continuous performance monitoring and equipment condition monitoring during regular operations with respect to standard operating parameters and prediction of the condition of equipment in advance. Condition-monitoring and predictive maintenance tools detect any potential equipment problems, so organizations can take a proactive approach to conduct equipment maintenance as and when needed.
Vibration analysis, oil analysis, thermal imaging, and equipment observation are some predictive measurement tools, just to name a few.
Vibration measurement
Benefits of Predictive maintenance in Offshore & Marine Industry:
- Minimise time required for asset maintenance
- Minimise lost production hours through minimised downtime
- Minimise the cost of spare parts through maximising the life of existing assets
- Achieve significant cost savings through the above points.
Predictive maintenance programmes have been proven to reduce maintenance costs by 30%, reduce breakdowns by 75% and reduce downtimes by 45%.
The initial drawback for industry is that the initial investment costs for predictive maintenance are high and typically require specialise expertise or experienced personnel for data analysis to be effective. However, long-term analysis shows that predictive maintenance can average about 70% of the costs of a preventative maintenance programme.
Corrective maintenance (CM) involves the replacement or repair of equipment after it fails. In response to equipment failure, a corrective maintenance is key to identifying the failure (it may be an equipment component or equipment item) and rectifying the failure so that the equipment can be reinstated, and the facility production can be restored.
Corrective maintenance is the process of restoring assets after unplanned downtime. It includes troubleshooting, disassembling, readjusting, repairing, replacing, and realigning of equipment.
Repairing a Thruster
Steps of Corrective Measurement:
- Diagnosis of fault
- Elimination of part(s) that is / are causing the failure
- Order and procurement of the replacement part(s)
- Replacement of the damaged and faulty part(s)
- Test of function
Maintenance of Static structure / Equipment in Offshore & Marine Assets:
While it is essential to carry out periodic preventive maintenance or predictive maintenance or combination of both for the operating equipment/ moving machinery, it is equally important to pay attention to maintenance of static structure such as steel structures, hull, timber, rubber components, etc. with timely preventive measures such as blasting and painting for the steel, greasing for wire rope, painting or protection coating for wood and also preservative for rubber, etc. for smooth life extension and also good look.
Above all, it is of utmost important to maintain marine & offshore assets in a proper and timely manner, especially because of its corrossive environment and non-availability of support services and parts in remote offshore locations.
Singapore Innovation Technology alongside its line of technical expertise are skilled in carrying out all forms of marine and offshore asset maintenance, all thanks to our unique capabilities made up from experienced and seasoned industry veterans.
