Maintenance of any mechanical equipment is necessary and critical for its longevity. It does not matter if it’s a small machine or a large structure, efficient maintenance would prolong its life. It becomes even more important on a ship to keep machinery up to date and smoothen the running conditions.
In the olden days, there were a large number of crew members and engineers on a ship. The maintenance as result was carried out quickly and easily. But that has changed now as the number of crew members and engineers have reduced drastically, with many ships carrying as little as 3-4 engineers on board. Even the time required to carry out the maintenance has been reduced. IoT solutions for the shipping industry are aiming to help the engineers and crew members in maintenance of the ship, whether it is off-shore or when the ship is docked.
Preventive or Scheduled Maintenance system
Although not all of the above mentioned procedures can be carried out by IoT solutions for shipping industry, most can be handled by them. Remotely controlled flying and grounded IoT devices can be used to carry out surveys of the ship. They can also be used to replace damaged parts and carry goods from one part of the ship to another part for maintenance by an engineer.
Another use of IoT solutions is in the shipping yards. The management of cargo to be transported can easily be done with the help of IoT devices. They can be used to check and maintain the inventory while they are uploaded and keep track of all vehicles and personnel present in the yard. They can also be used for security checks and for spotting suspicious activities.
Corrective or Breakdown Maintenance
This type of the maintenance is carried out when the machinery breaks down. It becomes hazardous for an engineer and crew members to carry out this kind of maintenance manually as during breakdown, other parts could get damaged and put the whole ship under risk. The risk in this method can be reduced by using IoT devices to scan the area of breakdown. Risk can also be reduced by identifying hazardous areas around the damaged part so that it can be replaced in a way that causes little or no threat to the well-being of engineers and crew members. For example, drones can be used to identify leaks in an oil tanker and could also be used to weld back the leak.
Condition Maintenance System
The machine parts are checked regularly in this type of system. The condition of the machinery can be checked regularly with the help of sensors and other IoT devices. It is applicable to critical systems that incorporate active redundancy and fault reporting. This kind of system already uses a lot of sensors and other reporting devices. IoT technology providers are developing what we may call an overall brain for these systems, which would connect all these devices and hence form an internal map of the ship. This kind of map could then help to analyze the generated IoT data in real-time to predict fault areas in the ship quickly and probably prevent a small error from becoming a tragedy.
Although the use of IoT could be a lot of help on ships, it will still require experience and knowledge as a wrong interpretation of any condition may further damage the machinery and lead to costly repairs which may be unacceptable to the company.
