defects – Officer of the Watch

Outfitting Related Structural Defects

September 4, 2013 by Officer of the Watch Leave a Comment

This post is a summary of a Tanker Structure Co-operative Forum (TSCF) paper which reviews the outfitting defects of tankers and provides an analysis on potential causes and repair proposals. Service history of double hull oil tankers has revealed the fact that outfitting details are not to be neglected since about 5 in 6 defects found in the upper deck plate and stiffeners were cracks due to outfitting. Outfitting reinforcements should be considered as part of the ship structure because a failure of this kind of local reinforcement may affect even the primary structure and cause a critical failure.

Weld Defects in Ships

May 31, 2012 by Nikos Kairis 1 Comment

A welding structure in order to have the required reliability, during her lifetime, it should have satisfactory quality. This means that it should:

Be designed in a way that is appropriate for its sought use during its forecasting lifetime.
Be manufactured from materials and welding methods according to the requirements.
Be used and maintained rightly.

Welding quality is a relative term and this means that it is not necessary a construction to have better quality from what is needed according to the requirements. When the requirements are strict, that has as consequence the cost of production to be extremely high. On the other hand when the requirements are loose, that has as consequence the cost of maintenance to be high and the forecasting lifetime to be reduced.