Product category:
Power Supplies and Uninterruptible Power Supplies
News Release from: Rockwell Automation Anorad | Subject:
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 27 May 2002
Support for reliable shipboard IT
BP Shipping has awarded a contract to Rockwell Automation to support the shipboard information technology systems on its fleet of 24 tankers.
BP Shipping has awarded a contract to Rockwell Automation to support the shipboard information technology systems on its fleet of 24 tankers The vessels carry crude oil, oil products and liquefied natural gas around the world, and BP Shipping needed a partner with global capability to provide a total support package to its ships
It also needed a company with long experience in designing, installing and maintaining IT systems in harsh industrial environments, as the movement, vibration, heat and humidity experienced on seagoing vessels place enormous stresses on computer equipment.
The contract is managed by Rockwell Automation's UK office with global support from the company's locations around the world.
Rockwell Automation, where possible, will first carry out a complete audit of all the ship management IT infrastructure and software currently installed onboard BP Shipping's vessels, tagging the assets and documenting the systems on each ship.
The next stage involves installing new hardware and a complete new ship operating environment (SOE) on each vessel.
The improved hardware and SOE will produce the improved reliability and ease of use and establish a firm platform for BP Shipping's continued expansion.
Rockwell Automation will also provide a complete support service for the IT systems on the ships, which are vital to their smooth and efficient operation.
A network of servers and up to ten PCs located around each ship are linked by Ethernet and enable the ship's officers to manage day-to-day operations including cargo handling, engineering and communications.
The new agreement follows the recent completion by Rockwell Automation of a project to web-enable data on the condition of plant onboard BP Shipping's vessels and make it accessible to its engineering superintendents anywhere in the world.
Data on levels of vibration and other variables such as pressures and temperatures for the major items of critical plant is manually collected by ships' engineers.
This is then automatically emailed via the ships' satellite communications to BP Shipping's central database at its Hemel Hempstead headquarters and to Rockwell Automation's condition monitoring specialists in the UK.
They collate and analyse this data, and each month place reports on the condition of the plant on to a web site, which is owned and operated by Rockwell Automation on behalf of BP Shipping and can be accessed by anyone with the necessary security clearance.
This system is a cost effective way of collecting and analysing condition monitoring data, and making it available to engineering staff anywhere in the world.
This has already realised savings by reducing unexpected breakdowns and repairs, thereby enabling better planning of routine maintenance.
It offers the potential for more cost-effective survey costs to keep the ship registered with their classification society, Lloyds Register.
Lloyds Register normally requires that all major plant onboard the ships is inspected on a five-yearly rolling basis.
An approved condition monitoring scheme like the one operated with Rockwell Automation however exempts the ships from a large proportion of these costly shipboard checks, as Lloyds Register is able to carry out "virtual" assessments of the plant's condition just by checking the reports on the website. Request a free brochure from Rockwell Automation Anorad ...
(This was Engineeringtalk's Top Story on 24 May 2002).
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