With limited real-time visibility of their vessel’s equipment health, crews can feel like they’re sailing in the dark. But what if vessels had a digital deckhand that could keep watch over equipment day and night?
When you’re on watch at sea, the horizon can feel endless and uncertain. For maintenance engineers onboard a vessel, that same sense of uncertainty can linger without clear visibility of equipment health.
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Without up-to-date insights, hidden issues like oil degradation or water ingress can surface unexpectedly, causing failures, breakdowns, and costly downtime – all of which increase a vessel’s total cost of ownership (TCO). Real-time monitoring shines a light through the darkness, giving crews the confidence to act early, extend oil life, and keep their vessels running smoothly.
Why vessel maintenance feels like sailing in the dark
Modern vessels are complex networks of machinery and moving parts. Keeping those parts moving as they should and equipment working effectively is a demanding job. And it’s made more difficult by the lack of visibility crews have over the day-to-day condition of critical components.
This is what creates the feeling of sailing in the dark – not fully knowing what’s coming up ahead and how to navigate it effectively. Another issue is the reliance on estimates for when the oil in a vessel needs changing in the absence of up-to-date information on oil health. This can often lead to inefficiency and increased costs when oil drains happen before they need to.
These are challenges the lubrication experts at Shell Marine have been working hard to help seafarers overcome. Gareth Lowe and Dirk Hoek are both Technical Product Managers at Shell Marine and have spent years working closely with shipping operators to help them increase vessel uptime and extend oil drain intervals by bringing a more comprehensive, data-led approach to maintenance.
So, how can this shine more light on the areas where vessel crews need it most?
Why is visibility of equipment condition so important?
Gareth Lowe: The challenge for most vessel owners and managers is the reliance on manual inspections of equipment to understand its condition. Crews can’t check every piece of equipment 24/7, which means they rely on technology like oil condition monitoring (OCM) to spot issues before they can lead to failure.
Dirk Hoek: OCM solutions provide an incredibly useful, in-depth analysis of oil health. But the practicalities of being at sea make it difficult to do this analysis rapidly. So, crews currently get a detailed snapshot of equipment conditions at the time the sample was taken. Ideally, they would add to this with a real-time overview of equipment health that allows them to act immediately on critical issues.
How can crews gain real-time visibility of equipment condition?
GL: Sensor monitoring is the next step operators can take to provide crews with real-time visibility, so issues don’t go unnoticed. At the same time, the sensor can tell crews when oil is still in good condition, helping to extend drain intervals. In high speed engines, extending these intervals can cut oil use by up to 50%, reducing the total cost of ownership.
It’s essentially like having a digital deckhand watching your equipment for you day and night.
DH : With sensors you get the ongoing view. You’re not waiting weeks to find out something has gone wrong – you see the change as it’s happening. It’s like moving from a snapshot to a livestream.
How is Shell working with operators to provide sensor monitoring?
DH: Working closely with our customers, we’ve developed a new technical solution – Shell Marine Sensor Service. Flagging subtle changes in oil condition immediately with a simple traffic-light display, this helps crews manage and maintain equipment across the vessel proactively and reduce the risk of failure and unplanned downtime. This real-time data can also be shared with Shell’s shore-based experts so we can interpret the trends, spot any anomalies and provide trusted recommendations to the crew.
GL: The on-board display logs hundreds of readings per day – one event code could be related to water, another to oil degradation. Either way, it collects the data 24/7 and provides a live read-out of any issues detected. If an issue occurs, the crew on board will know what’s happened and be able to react accordingly. With this digital deckhand in place, operators can now have real-time reporting on the health of their oil and equipment.
This helps to prevent equipment failures, reduces unplanned downtime and lower maintenance costs. It also means operators can take the guesswork out of oil changes.
Shell Marine is a global leader in marine fuels and lubricants solutions. Alongside high-performance marine lubricants, it supports operators with a suite of technical and digital solutions designed to help improve vessel performance and reduce operating costs.
Note: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DredgingToday.com.
about 8 months ago
With limited real-time visibility of their vessel’s equipment health, crews can feel like they’re sailing in the dark. But what if vessels had a digital deckhand that could keep watch over equipment day and night? When you’re on watch at sea, the horizon can feel endless and uncertain. For maintenan