Equipment reliability is essential for any shipping company. Unexpected maintenance can lead to downtime and quickly escalate costs. Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. has initiated a three-year service agreement with SKF to help ensure maximum availability and stay prepared for any potential issues.
Challenge: Reducing maintenance needs
Seanergy needed to create an improved, cost-efficient maintenance program for its rotating equipment and achieve the necessary requirements for class approval. With a fleet of eleven bulk carriers, extending overhauling intervals would be a huge benefit, as well as maximizing availability for its critical and auxiliary machinery. To do this, the company needed to detect any potential faults as early as possible. Implementing a condition-based maintenance (CBM) strategy would be essential to this. A predictive approach, rather than reactive, would prevent any unexpected maintenance and reduce operating expenditure.
International shipping company Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. provides marine dry bulk transportation services. With nine capesize vessels and two supramaxes, its fleet has a combined cargo-carrying capacity of approximately 1,682,582 DWT and an average fleet age of about 8.5 years.
Switching to a predictive maintenance approach
Seanergy enhanced its maintenance strategy by adopting advanced CBM practices. Using a hand-held instrument for condition monitoring, the crew is able to collect and monitor vibration data from ship machinery much more easily. The data is then uploaded to a shared online server that is available for all relevant parties. The maintenance contract between Seanergy and SKF includes monthly and semi-year vibration analysis reports, depending on the equipment, which are produced by SKF experts in Athens. These reports alert the chief engineer to any current issues in machinery and recommend actions for maintenance. They can also generate a work order in the maintenance management system, enabling the company to plan maintenance much more efficiently.
We needed to change from a firefighting mindset to a preventive maintenance philosophy. Without a reliable agreement, finding a quick solution takes time. With the SKF CBM solution we can identify and rectify problems at an early stage and optimize spare parts availability.
Tools for a successful CBM strategy
Hand-held instruments for condition monitoring from SKF, such as the SKF Microlog Analyzer GX, collect vibration data from machinery including ballast pumps, fuel oil or lube oil purifiers, and shaft generators. The data is displayed in analytical reports in the SKF One Global Cloud, ensuring information is always available to ship operators.
With a three-year service agreement, Seanergy guarantees high reliability and availability of the equipment and optimized operational performance.