Wärtsilä expands its offering in propulsion monitoring services
Wärtsilä, the marine industry’s leading solutions and services provider, expands its offering in propulsion monitoring services. Wärtsilä Propulsion Condition Monitoring Service (PCMS) that was introduced to the market in 2010 will expand its functionalities and will now be 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), the company said in its press release.
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 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 analysed 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,” says Frank Velthuis, Manager of Wärtsilä’s CBM Centre Propulsion.
Professional and Starter editions
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 optimising the overhaul intervals with DLP, the overall profitability of the asset can be maximised.
Wärtsilä is a global supplier of a full range of products, solutions and services for the marine industry. This capability is backed by the industry’s most complete network of service and repair facilities with operations in more than 160 locations in nearly 70 countries with 11,000 employees. The company’s Services & Support Business has the broadest offering in the industry. It ranges from basic support, installation and commissioning, performance optimization, upgrades, conversions and environmental solutions to service projects and agreements focusing on overall equipment performance and asset management.