voices of the industry
Class Collaboration Vital to Furthering LNG as Fuel
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“The risk that we as an industry face, in the rush to adopt environmental standards...is compromising...safety” Jim Watson President and COO, ABS Americas Division Houston, TX
S2 MARINE LOG December 2013
rom equipment construction, to regulatory requirements, to training and bunkering— there are many areas that must be addressed for the wide-scale adoption of LNG as a marine fuel. Knowledge-based partnerships among Class societies, regulatory bodies, and ship operators are critical to balancing the objectives of safety, environmental regulation, and operational efficiency. Class societies provide guidance to the marine and offshore industries by working closely with regulators and research institutions to manage operational safety and performance issues when existing technologies are used in new applications. The risk that we as an industry face, in the rush to adopt new environmental standards or embrace more efficient technology, is compromising the safety of the vessel, its cargo, or the crew. Partnerships allow us the opportunity to understand risk trade-offs and share technical experiences so that we can take a proactive approach that supports the wider industry and safely advances technology applications. In the case of gas-fuel propulsion systems, ABS provides technical standards for the arrangement, construction, installation and operation of machinery components and systems for gas-fueled vessels in its Guide for Propulsion and Auxiliary Systems for Gas Fueled Ships.
Additionally, a recently assembled team of industry-focused professionals at ABS, the Global Gas Solutions Team, is collaborating with owners, shipyards, and equipment manufacturers to evaluate the use of LNG-fueled propulsion systems as a solution for compliance with Annex VI MARPOL Convention requirements. The Global Gas Solutions Team draws from first-hand experience working with designers and key regulators to develop guidelines and policies addressing the challenges unique to adopting the first LNGas-fuel initiatives in the U.S. Among ABS’s LNG-as-fuel projects are the Harvey Gulf dual fuel offshore support vessels, TOTE’s dual fuel new construction and conversion projects, and various floating LNG export terminal projects under development. We also are supporting Horizon Lines and Interlake Steamship as existing vessels are converted and Staten Island Ferries and BC Ferries as they study the feasibility of using LNG as fuel. We are fortunate to have industry partners such as Harvey Gulf, NASSCO and the Society for Gas as a Marine Fuel assisting us with these efforts and to share previous “lessons learned” from projects ranging from floating LNG liquefaction to the world’s first LNG regasification vessels. All told, ABS has more than 50 years of LNG handling and storage
cLASSIFICATION
New energy-efficient ship designs that use LNG as fuel propulsion systems have the potential to reshape the operating landscape
Images courtesy TOTE Inc. (top), Harvey Gulf International Marine LLC (bottom).
experience, and each new project is another opportunity to shape concept and design specifications for U.S. flag, LNG-fueled vessels. Continued efforts to collaborate on a broad range of issues such as operations, bunkering requirements, and safety considerations for specific vessels will provide a better understanding of appropriate operational requirements and restrictions, design loads, applicable class society rules, industry standards, and flag state statutory
Among ABS’ LNG-as-fuel projects are the Harvey Gulf dual fuel offshore support vessels
requirements as gas-fueled technology gains ground in North America. Looking ahead, ABS is seeking input from stakeholders to assess infrastructure needs and availability, define training requirements, develop feasibility study criteria, and carry out economic modeling in an internally funded initiative to support LNG as fuel in North America. The study also will consider other key safety and operational factors that could impact the acceptance of LNG as fuel in North America.
There are challenges to implementing LNG as a fuel on a wider scale. But creative and technical points of contention are what drive us toward innovative solutions. Our industry must do more than adapt to changing operating and regulatory landscapes—it must seek greater efficiency and, above all, strengthen its safety measures. By le ver ag ing our abilit ies, technical experience, guidance, and competence of Class, we are well positioned to tackle these challenges head on and to develop better practices for both regulators and industry alike that will reinforce these knowledge-based partnerships. Trust remains at the crux of collaboration. Class is and should remain an independent voice at the center of the process of finding solutions. ABS has a unique position in the marine community working with regulators and industry partners, and we will continue to align our internal resources with external needs to identify solutions to the most pressing operational challenges facing our industry. December 2013 MARINE LOG S3
voices of the industry
Leveraging New Technologies for Solution-Based Repair Services
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“Technology is advancing at an unbelievable pace and one must evolve with it or die.” RICHARD BLUDWORTH CEO Bludworth Marine LLC Houston, TX
S4 MARINE LOG December 2013
ludworth Marine combines over 200 years of expert industry experience with the next 200 years of new talent, to continue the tradition of solution-based repair services. We specialize in vessel repair services, new construction, rotating equipment pump repairs, marine electrical troubleshooting, and marine engineering. Bludworth Marine LLC is leading the marine industry and laying the groundwork for an innovative future by placing strategic bets on new technologies and out-of-the-box thinking. Our decades of operational and repair experience provides a unique background for customer satisfaction. We understand the need to get customers back to work. Since its inception, Bludworth Marine has offered a diverse portfolio of services. We began working on offshore tugs and barges in 1998. Growth was slow at first, however, we quickly doubled our capacity every year for five consecutive years and have continued to grow in recent years. We currently operate four shipyard locations in the Texas Gulf Coast region, with crews capable of traveling internationally. Our growth and success has been made possible by our highly specialized team of experts. We have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to hire some of the best men and women in the industry. These people have continued
to open up new markets, sub-sectors of existing industries and give us all another expert perspective. As t h e i n du s t r y con t i nu e s to change, so do we. We have quickly evolved our collection of services to adapt to the changing business environment. Our focus remains m a r i n e f a b r i c a t i o n a n d ve s sel repair, though we do not stop there. We are recognized industry-wide for our expertise in heavy steel repair. Our team continues to come up with innovative solutions to large repairs, sometimes utilizing automated welding procedures. Additionally, we have employed some of America’s best pump and rotating equipment, as well as electrical specialists. As the world becomes more automated, vessel owners are going to depend on qualified technicians to troubleshoot and resolve issues. Inherently, the vast array of projects that come to our yards give us the opportunities to solve new problems everyday. With each new job, comes a new challenge. Innovative use of technology Everyone knows technology and software are growing at an uncontrollable rate, and making proper adjustments and evaluating current systems is necessary to prevent being left behind. Within our industry, we recognized the inability to get our customers real-time information
Ship Repair
Bludworth Marine has four shipyards along the Gulf Coast to service inland and offshore tugs and barges, OSVs and oceangoing ships
on projects. Traditionally, the typical construction business operates weeks, and sometime, months in arrears. To eliminate this, we have developed a cloud-based software system that gives us the ability to enter time, material cost, job specifications and daily turnovers in the field. Every single Bludworth foreman and supervisor is trained on and equipped with this technology. They now have the ability to manage their jobs and create reportable data for the customer at the same time. We then use this data to keep our customers up-to-date, analyze current projects and find better ways of conducting repairs. This innovative
real-time system separates traditional shipyards from the ones that will change industry standards. Additionally, to stay relevant and competitive, we also gain advantages by using established technologies in innovative ways. Bludworth Marine began focusing on the manufacturing of new inland barges in 2010. We dedicated time and resources conducting hands-on research trying to find safer and more cost-effective ways to the building and launching of new vessels, during which we developed a new procedure for docking vessels. We accomplished this by deploying dozens of rubberized airbags underneath the hull, as you
would when launching a new barge into the water. We have engineered a way to use rotating equipment to strategically apply the correct amount of force to pull 300+ foot vessels on land, without the use of a traditional dry-dock. This method is much safer for working on vessels, and cut material handling times by half, as we have easy access all around the base of the vessels. Bludworth Marine lives its motto, “Solutions, Not Problems,� and is already leading the next generation of marine repair, with its innovative and flexible solutions to the marine industry.
Bludworth Marine continues to employ innovative techniques and technologies for vessel repairs
December 2013 MARINE LOG S5
voices of the industry
Top Quality Underwriting Begins with Knowing your Client’s Needs
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“The bottom line is we want to grow with our client’s needs and expanding our product lines makes that a reality.” H. Elder Brown, JR. Chairman, Continental Underwriters Ltd. Covington, LA
S6 MARINE LOG December 2013
o n t i n e n t a l Un d e r w r i t ers, Ltd. is not new to the marine insurance business. With over 43 years of continuous marine experience, we have garnered an enviable reputation for quality and service. There are less than three companies such as ours that have been in business as long as we have. Our clients know we are more than fair in our approach to their account. You can buy cheaper but you can’t buy better. Our underwriting division represents one of the only A+ XV (as rated by AM Best) and AA (as rated by S&P) insurers. Such quality is not obtained through shoddy cut rate selling of insurance. We have two types of accounts. The first one is a Core account and the other is a soon to be Core account. We pride ourselves in always being able to work through difficult markets, losses and economic times. With rare exception have we seen an account that can’t be written if there is a willing insured. When we write an account we expect to be writing that account 10-plus years in the future. Just ask family-owned LiftBoat operator Montco Offshore, Inc., Galliano, LA, or crew/supply boat operator Gulf Logistics, Inc., Larose, LA. We’ve worked with Montco for 35 years and Gulf Logistics for over 25 years. The amount of time we have insured these companies is not
out of the ordinary. The mutual loyalty and respect between us and our insureds has been earned over time. We spend a lot of time working through a client’s needs. It makes sense to know the client’s business well up front before wishing we had done our homework years later when the claims start rolling in. We can resolve most every issue once we have the necessary information in hand without delay. We recently expanded our business plan to include much higher capacity for our marine program. Over the last year and a half we have increased our in-house capacity five fold on excess and bumbershoot liabilities with a combined capacity of $30,000,000. Having completed that phase of our expanded footprint, we also were encouraged to broaden our facilities to write a very comprehensive portfolio of Inland Marine business which also has a strong cross over benefit to our existing core clients and for new clients. Just recently we commenced our Inland Marine Division. We have the absolute top underwriters in the business, full stop. Our mainframe Hull and Machinery and Marine Liability lines remain strong with continued support from the world’s top reinsurers. The bottom line is we want to grow with our client’s needs and expanding our product lines makes that a reality. With an expanding footprint
Insurance category
Over the last year and a half we have increased our in-house capacity five fold on excess and bumbershoot liabilities with a combined capacity of $30,000,000. offering more capacity and more products requires management skill beyond simply saying we have this ability. We have very senior management within our group and in conjunction with our insuring partners. Ask any client of ours and you will hear accolades as to our claims handling. We do not simply write a check when a loss occurs. We get involved. We want to know what went wrong, if anything did. We use every claim as a learning experience
for us but we especially want our clients to benefit from our root cause analysis of a claim. This hopefully helps prevent or minimize a similar loss in the future. Our founder, H. Elder Brown, believed that loyalty was the cornerstone of our business. Two generations since we have remained true to that foundation. Even when a client’s results are less than acceptable, we will work diligently to provide a quality product for them.
That’s because clients are not seen as a simple application on paper. They are seen as the lifeblood of our company. Insurance is not always an absolute even though some may feel it is. It is words on a piece of paper with a promise to pay—maybe. That’s where we outshine our competitors. We are always willing to sit down and work out any problem. Try putting a price on that.
Continental Underwriters has a strong presence in the Inland and Offshore marine industry
December 2013 MARINE LOG S7
voices of the industry
Setting the Standard for Penetration Sealing Systems
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“The key to delivering long-term sealing capabilities is advanced rubber technology ‘know-how.’” Hans Beele President Beele Engineering BV Aalten, The Netherlands
ENGINEERING
S8 MARINE LOG December 2013
ealing systems for pipe and cable penetrations play a vital role in protecting ships and offshore installations against the spread of fire, smoke and water. In the event of an accident or an equipment failure, fire, smoke or water can travel rapidly. If a sealing system fails, the results can be at worst catastrophic or at best expensive. The most important consideration is, of course, whether the selected system will do what it is intended to do and keep on doing it for the entire life of the installation. Further questions concern reliably budgeting and planning. What are the costs of keeping the system functional over the life of the installation? Does the system require continuous maintenance, or is it basically maintenance-free? When these factors are taken into account, very few systems will qualify. Sealing systems are, in fact, engineered products. Meeting the required specifications with products that deliver long-term, minimum-maintenance functionalit y, calls for up-to-date manufacturing technology and high-tech materials, backed by continuous R&D and testing. One company with all of these capabilities is Beele Engineering (and note the “Engineering” in the name). Beele Eng ineer ing has been developing and improving sealing systems for more than 40 years and
has led the field with state-of-theart products and technologies. Its record of invention and innovation is demonstrated by a long list of patents granted over the years. Driving these innovations is continuous contact with designers, shipyards and end users around the world. This is all part of a “we care” attitude inspired by a passion to deliver systems that will do the job when and where it really counts – in the field and during a crisis. TYPE APPROVAL The idea that a Type Approval certificate is “good for everything” is simply not the case. Beele Engineering has established “limitation matrices” for fire, gas and water tightness for sealing systems. A limitation matrix is unique for each product/system of every manufacturer. Beele maintains that the “limitation matrices” must be observed to ensure the products will perform as intended. Based on these limitation matrices, Beele not only designs but tests accordingly. In addition, Beele is one of the very few companies, if not the only company, to provide stamped detail drawings along with the Type Approval Certificates. WATER TIGHTNESS: SETTING THE STANDARD The key to delivering long-term sealing capabilities is advanced
Sealing systems category
Fire safety is an even more complex issue. While watertight sealing is more or less a mechanical issue, fire-stop systems must retain mechanical stability under fire load while coping with the behaviour of the material compositions of ducted pipes and cables
rubber technology “know how.� Simply compressing rubber components to perform the tightness function of the sealing system is not the optimum solution. Rubber is, by nature, incom-pressible, and the ultimate result of heavy compression is stress relaxation and permanent deformation. Within quite a short time, depending on the composition and the vulcanization process, the flexibility of the rubber w il l be reduced, w hich could result in leakage. Re-tightening by compressing further only accelerates the undesired deformation. Beele
Engineering has established that long term functional sealing is achieved by coupling an optimized design of the rubber components with an appropriate polymer and that severe compression is to be avoided. In addition, extreme hardness or hardening of the rubber over time must be avoided as this has an adverse impact on sealing capability. FIRE SAFETY Fire safety is an even more complex issue. While watertight sealing is more or less a mechanical issue, fire-stop systems must retain mechanical stability under fire load while coping with the behaviour of the material compositions of ducted pipes and cables. Factors that must be considered include: flame erosion, mechanical stresses caused by expansion, melting cable sheathings, charring of sealing material, heat transmission by copper conductors or metallic pipes, as well as distortion of the construction. Passive fire protection systems must undergo not only fire tests,
but also mechanical tests and, for complete safety, ageing tests. They should deliver proof that they are not moisture-sensitive or vulnerable from environmental or mechanical exposure. TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP In addition to outstanding quality and performance, Beele products offer low total cost of ownership. While the initial installed cost is competitive with most other systems on the market, the real benefit is the return on investment over the long service life of an installation. B eele pro duc ts, w hich have been artificially aged for over 20 years, have shown there is no need for replacement—a unique feature not applicable to many competitive products. Once the initial investment is made, the transits never need to be repacked unless a complete structural overhaul is undertaken. T h e re s u l t i s p e a ce of mind for all concerned for the entire life of the structure. December 2013 MARINE LOG S9
voices of the industry
New Hayata Technology Revolutionizes Banding and Tagging Operations
H “Technology has made it possible to not only barcode tags,..., but also generate high-speed output of embossed tags.” Tom Crouch President Hayata, Ltd. Carrollton, TX
S10 MARINE LOG December 2013
ayata, Ltd. President Tom Crouch has seen a lot of change during his 15 years of manufacturing and selling stainless steel banding, ties and tags, but never before, he says, have there been such positive advances in the industry. Two particular breakthroughs are transforming the industry. “Technology has made it possible to not only barcode Stainless Steel tags, providing more detailed information that remains readable in all conditions, but also generate highspeed output of embossed tags,” says Crouch. Barcoded Tags While barcoding has been around since the early 1960s, when it was first developed to identify rolling stock cars in rail yards, use of the technology has soared in the last decade. Most anything you buy these days has some kind of barcode associated with it. Coupled with a special reader, which instantly interprets the data and displays the item’s price and associated data, the barcode is common in most industries. But until now, it hasn’t figured into stainless steel tags. “Cables, pipes, valves and other mission-critical objects that require specific tags for safety and maintenance control can now be marked and identified with an ease and precision never before possible,” says Crouch. “This is a game changer for
tagging operations. The user can put more information on the tag and use a hand-held reader to get accurate, easy to read information.” Today’s most common barcodes systematically represent data by varying the width and spacing of parallel one-dimension (1D) lines. However, barcodes also take the form of two-dimensional (2D) dots. Hayata has been first to market with a new tag production system service that outputs embossed 2D barcode stainless steel tags. Customers email their data in a spreadsheet and the tags are output using a 2D dot format. The completed tags ship within 24 hours of data receipt on normal business days. Hayata’s 2D tag algorithms are industry standard and hand-held barcode readers, such as Dataman and Motorola 2D readers, are readily available. The 2D embossed barcode tags cover all the same bases as regular embossed ones. Hayata has put up to three coats of paint on their new tags and the reader is still able to interpret all the information. Best of all, the reader enables maintenance or safety inspectors to get clear, precise information without having to grasp and visually read the tag. This reduces human tag reading errors in low light or hazardous conditions and allows personnel to cover more ground in less time. The quick gathering of accurate information is also helpful for isolated
Tagging & BANDING category
The quick gathering of accurate information is also helpful in isolated applications on ships and offshore oil rigs
Hayata is now offering 2D embossed barcoded tags (left). The Hammerhead CT-7 is a lightweight, one-hand operation installation tool featuring a flat heavy-duty nose (right)
applications such as shipboard or offshore oil rigs. Users can transmit data acquired by the reader directly to land-based vendors to make orders for vital replacement parts 100% accurate. This can reduce order errors and speed delivery time, which can reduce downtime. High-Speed Embossing Historically, embossed stainless steel tags have been slow to produce. It generally takes five-to-ten minutes to create one tag on a manual machine.
But all that has changed. Hayata has developed a new auto-embossing machine that takes the tedium out of the tag production process. The Hayata SmartTagTM 2500 can produce up to 400 4-line embossed tags per hour, with data input into the unit from the user’s spreadsheet. For users needing a high volume of alpha-numeric embossed tags, this breakthrough technology will put them on the leading edge. A single operator with a SmartTag 2500 unit can produce all the tag
The Hayata SmartTag TM 2500 can output up to 400 embossed stainless steel tags per hour
requirements of a large-scale marking operation. Hammerhead Speeds Stainless Steel Banding Installation Another Hayata breakthrough is the Hammerhead CT-7, a manual ratchet tool designed to make stainless steel cable tie installations more efficient and tooling last longer. Hammerhead, which features a flat heavy-duty “hammerhead” nose, offers easy one-handed operation, is lightweight to reduce installer fatigue and allows the user to hammer down cable tie heads or tails if required without damaging the tool. “We continually test how to make stronger, easier-to-install stainless steel bands and better, more automated tools to speed the process. The Hammerhead was designed after observing how the installer works and creating a tool to make him more efficient,” says Crouch. For more information contact us at 214-360-7708 or sales@hayata.com. December 2013 MARINE LOG S11
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