SPECIFICATIONS
- ABS Classification Requirements for High Speed Naval Craft
- Redundant hydraulic system
- Redundant electrical control system
- HMI to operate steering system on bridge
- (4) Hydraulic cylinders with dual independent tiller design
- Stainless steel components
PROJECT DETAILS
It goes without saying that old equipment is usually expensive to maintain, especially where marine fleets are concerned. In one recent instance, a client had an aging fleet of vessels, each more than 30 years old. The client wanted to equip the fleet with next-generation, high-speed steering units.
Unfortunately, this particular client had some lofty requirements to make the vendor selection process especially challenging. To make matters more challenging, the client recently had been let down by a trusted engineering firm and knew that they needed to be extra cautious in picking the right partner.
Ultimately, they made the right choice and invested in SIT’s experience and track record.
SIT realized that the age of the roughly 58 ships meant that new designs had lots of advances in equipment and technology to account for. There were many integrations to perform across various systems, including electronic, hydraulic, and ship monitoring. Many hours of design verification were necessary to ensure that actual performance met or exceeded predictive performance. All this was accomplished by going all the way back to square-one with first-order calculations for design aspects, as mandated by the bid.
In the end, this project allowed SIT to demonstrate its expertise and reliability, with ships being delivered satisfactorily. Each vessel will last at least 40 years when completed with many millions of savings in maintenance expenses as a result. SIT continues to deliver a new system roughly every four weeks, each one accounting for the client’s adjustments and tailored to emerging needs.