MV MOL Comfort Present scenario and cause analysis report by Naval Architects.......

MV MOL Comfort Present scenario(photos) and cause analysis report by Naval Architects....... 

EARLIER: MOL COMFORT SUFFERS BROKEN BACK, SINKS OFF YEMEN

26 crewmembers of an MOL containership were forced to abandon ship Monday off Yemen after the ship suffered from catastrophic hull failure and reportedly sank.

The MV MOL Comfort, an 8,000 TEU-type containership cracked in half about 200 miles from the Yemeni coast at about 12’30″N 60′E while enroute from Singapore to Jeddah with a load of 7,041 TEUs. All 26 crew – made up 11 Russians, 1 Ukrainian and 14 Filipino

The MRCC in Mumbai has just tweeted saying that the sections of MOL COMFORT are still afloat and are being monitored.

         
            According to a report by IANS News, the Indian Coast Guard in Mumbai diverted three vessels in the area to assist. The MV Yantian Express was first to arrive on scene and rescued the survivors.  The 2008-built MOL Comfort sank a short time later, the report said.

Weather at the time was strong winds and seas up to six meters.

            The ship’s operator, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, says that an Emergency Control Headquarters has been established for the incident and MOL is taking company-wide measures to settle the matter. The MOL statement said that damage was “extensive” and that details of the incident were still being confirmed.

A Catastrophic Structural Failure

                From a naval architecture standpoint, this is a puzzling situation.  Ships are designed to handle long period and large waves that crest on the bow and stern and have a trough amidships.  This creates a sagging situation that puts extreme tension on the keel and compression at deck level.  The opposite, “hogging” situation occurs when the crest of the wave moves to the center of the ship and the trough of the waves are at bow and stern.

The repeat flexing of the ship in these perfectly timed waves is likely what caused the loss of this vessel.  In the photo above, a perfect example of hogging is shown, where the bow and the stern are both lying in the troughs of two waves.

It should not have happened however.  Ships are built to handle this situation and engineering rules are followed to ensure the transverse “section modulus” of the vessel is sufficient to handle these extreme stresses imposed by nature.  There are other possibilities however…

The loading of the containers on board may have exacerbated the situation.  Although the loading of the containers appears even in the photo, the weight distribution of the containers may not have been even.  Had heavier containers been loaded on the bow and stern and lighter ones in the center of the ship, the vessel may have been placed in a hogging situation before she even set sail.  It’s speculation of course to say one way or another, but assuming that she met class requirements, it’s one possible explanation for what happened.

Hyundai Heavy Develops Mini Welding Robot for Shipbuilding

Hyundai Heavy Develops Mini Welding Robot for Shipbuilding 

                      Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s biggest shipbuilder and a leading industrial robot manufacturer, today announced the Company has developed mini welding robots for building ships. 

                  

                     The compact design of the welding machine, measuring 50 cm by 30 cm by 15cm when retracted its welding arm, can operate in confined areas inaccessible to human welders. 

                     The robot’s six joints enable the machine to carry out almost all types of welding work at a similar speed usually done by a welder. 

Moreover, a magnet on its body means the machine can be attached to steel walls or ceilings. Weighing just 15 kg, an operator can control three machines at the same time increasing productivity threefold. 

With the installation of software for steel cutting, blasting and painting, the robot can perform these other shipbuilding roles. Hyundai Heavy also plans to improve the robots to be usable for building onshore/offshore facilities and construction equipment. The mobile welding robots are scheduled to be used in building ships in Hyundai Heavy from the second half of this year. 

Hyundai Heavy, South Korea’s largest industrial robot manufacturer, also manufactures 20 models of car assembly robots, 10 models of LCD handling robots, and is in the process of developing various types of surgical robots in association with Asan Medical Center. 

Nigerian survives two days at sea, in underwater air pocket

Jed Chamberlain, from DCN Global diving company, describes how Harrison Okene (pictured) was rescued

A Nigerian man has survived for two-and-a-half days trapped 30m (98ft) deep in freezing seawater.

Harrison Okene, 29, was on board the tug boat Jascon-4 when it capsized in heavy swells.

It sank to the seabed, upside down, but Mr Harrison was trapped in an air pocket and able to breathe.

                      Mr Harrison survived in an air pocket, 30m underwater in pitch darkness

Of the other 12 people on board, 10 bodies have already been found and Mr Harrison is assumed to be the only survivor.

Mr Harrison told Reuters journalist Joe Brock that he could hear fish eating the dead bodies of his fellow crew members.

Intense thirst

The Jascon-4 capsized on 26 May, about 32km (20 miles) off the coast of Nigeria, while it was stabilising an oil tanker at a Chevron platform.

Mr Harrison was working there as a cook, according to the ship's owners, West African Ventures.

Mr Harrison told Reuters he was in the toilet when he realised that the boat was beginning to turn over, and as the vessel sank, he managed to find his way to an area with an air pocket.

"I was there in the water in total darkness just thinking it's the end. I kept thinking the water was going to fill up the room but it did not," he said.

"I was so hungry but mostly so, so thirsty. The salt water took the skin off my tongue."

"I could perceive the dead bodies of my crew were nearby. I could smell them. The fish came in and began eating the bodies. I could hear the sound."

LNG Bunker Barge for large volumes

LNG Bunker Barge for large volumes 

Design study developed by NLI Solutions, Rolls-Royce
and Wilhelmsen Technical Solutions. 


          Offshore oil and gas engineering specialist NLI Solutions (NLI) has developed a concept for a LNG Bunker Barge based on the NLI LNG tank design. The concept has been further developed in a design study together with the Marine division of Rolls-Royce and Wilhelmsen Technical Solutions (WTS). 

              LNG as is the cleanest commercial available fuel for ships today. The movement towards LNG is rapidly increasing, but a limiting factor is practical availability of LNG bunker facilities. LNG Bunker Barges are often called the "missing link" for LNG to happen. Today only one such exists, capable of 187m3 of LNG, whilst oceangoing ships need to bunker several thousand cbm. Building a small carrier for bunker purposes is expensive so our suggestion is a high-tech low cost barge, the HighTechBarge (HTB). 

            The HTB will for safety reasons be very maneuverable with pod-drives, as is used in offshore support vessels, have state-of-the-art electronics for danger detection and early evasive maneuvering. 

The NLI LNG tank is an atmospheric, prismatic steel tank, type "B", in this study capable of containing 4000m3 of LNG. It will be covered with a new insulation system with very low levels of boil off gas (BOG). 

                The electricity production for both propulsion and all barge and LNG/gas systems is of course from an environment friendly clean burning gas engine. The HTB has a large pressure tank on the aft deck for BOG handling and gas delivery to engine. Since re-condensation equipment is very expensive, takes a lot of space, and has very low efficiency for small installations like this, the HTB will use BOG for its own purposes. 

ABB's Amazing Container Crane Remote Control

ABB's Amazing Container Crane Remote Control

            There will be no more manual operated cranes.....To know more read and wath the video at the end of post.........

           As ships grow bigger & cranes taller, a key technology in the handling of shipborne containers is the remote handling of STS cranes.

                         For a crane operator sitting in a small crane cabin, far above ground and a long way from the containers, the ability to operate the crane with speed, precision and consistency is almost impossible. It is also physically demanding, frequently causing motion sickness and stress to the back and neck, which often leads to absenteeism.

                In July this year, the first of 20 vessels in the new Maersk Triple-E class will enter service, each with a capacity to carry about 18,000 TEUs. Four hundred meters long and 50 meters wide, the Triple-E is a giant in every respect. It will require 5-7 of the tallest ship-to-shore(STS) cranes on the planet to load and unload these vessels at full capacity, each one capable of lifting a container 52 meters in the air and 20 meters below the quayside – a total lifting height of 72 meters.

                    ABB is the first company in the world to develop a solution that enables the crane operators to leave the stressful confines of the cabin and operate the crane remotely from a specially designed control room that can be situated anywhere in the terminal. 

                          The key to this breakthrough are the smart automation features in ABB’s crane systems. These features run the loading and unloading process automatically, under the supervision of crane operators located in a remote control room. This minimizes loading and unloading cycle times by bringing consistency - in speed, efficiency and precision - to crane operations. And, it provides the operators with the best and most ergonomic working environment possible.

                 ABB piloted the world’s first remotely controlled STS crane in Panama in December 2010. Shortly after in 2012, ABB received three orders from the largest container terminals in Europe and the Middle East – from two terminals at the Maasvlakte 2 extension at the Port of Rotterdam, and from the new Jebel Ali T3 container terminal in Dubai.

                     All the STS cranes at both Maasvlakte 2 and Jebel Ali T3 terminals will be equipped with ABB remotely operated crane systems, a total of 41 cranes that will start production in 2014. This represents 20 percent of the STS market in 2012 – a remarkable achievement in such a short time and strong confirmation of customer acceptance of the new ABB technology.

A 51/2 minute movie showing ABB's shore-to-ship crane automation is available here.

Tanker and bulk carrier collide off Galveston

Tanker and bulk carrier collide off Galveston 

 Tank Vessel Profit after a collision with the Motor Vessel Imperial Spirit

                         The Coast Guard is responding to a collision between two deep draft ships approximately 30 miles off the coast of Galveston on 30th May 2013.

               There has been no report of injury or pollution from either vessel; however, both vessels are reporting damage but are in stable condition.

The Tank Vessel Profit after a collision with the Motor Vessel Imperial Spirit 30 miles off of the coast of Galveston May 30, 2013. The collision caused damage to both vessels, but no injury or pollution occurred during the incident. U.S Coast Guard Photo.

HOUSTON — The Coast Guard is responding to a collision between two deep draft ships approximately 30 miles off the coast of Galveston on 30th May 2013.

There has been no report of injury or pollution from either vessel; however, both vessels are reporting damage but are in stable condition.

At approximately 5:50 a.m. watchstanders at Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Texas City received a report of a collision between the 900-foot Tank Vessel Profit loaded with approximately 19 million gallons of crude oil and the 625-foot Motor Vessel Imperial Spirit loaded with grain.

The Coast Guard launched an Air Station Houston helicopter with a pollution incident responder to conduct an initial damage assessment.

Coast Guard Cutter Skipjack was also launched with a team of incident responders, marine inspectors, and marine casualty investigators to conduct a preliminary investigation and mitigate any possible further risk to the environment or the mariners aboard the two vessels.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.Keep reading the following posts for the results of investigation.