Maintenance advice for marine engineers

HMS Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s first new aircraft carrier in more than 30 years, made it’s dry dock venture in July.  The ship has been described by The Engineer as, “one of the UK’s most-challenging engineering projects,” and has been the subject of complex CAD modelling with a virtual prototype of the entire ship shared across the supply chain during its manufacture.

Life below decks in this vast workspace is equally complex.  According to BAE Systems’ David Downs, engineering director of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, “there are more than 3,000 compartments and virtually no windows so even routine journeys can take up to 20 minutes.” A navigation system has been provided for the crew, combining the deck plans with route-finding logic and capability to record inspections and patrols, which has been installed onto commercially available handheld devices.

With such complexity inherent in moving below decks on carriers such as this, it is vital that marine engineers minimise the time and effort involved in maintaining rotating shafts, pumps, motors, fans, gearboxes and engine systems, and that means making the most of vibration monitoring.

Vibration, often caused by poor alignment, is one of the main causes of failure in key marine applications such as propulsion systems and turbochargers for main or auxiliary engines.  Poor alignment can be the result of inaccurate installation, wear, mechanical damage and even changes in temperature, and the resulting vibration increases friction and wear on other components, leading to premature failure. Consequently, the performance and service life of components is reduced, while operating costs and inconvenient maintenance operations are significantly increased.

By adopting vibration monitoring as a key tool to ensure the availability and performance of moving equipment, engineers can maintain equipment far more efficiently with less manpower and maintenance.