Feature 3 | NORTH AMERICA Detyens gets a productivity boost
Investment in equipment, part funded by the Federal government, is helping to boost productivity at the yard.
S
outh Carolina-based Detyens Shipyards Inc. (DSI) has recently upgraded handling facilities at
its Charleston yard, using a US$0.9 million grant from the Federal Marad agency, awarded under the Small Shipyards Grant program, which the shipyard itself has matched. This is the first Federal funding that the yard has received in almost 50 years. A new 56.6m tower crane has been
acquired, and this is allowing the yard to reach all areas of the larger vessels that it repairs, including cruise ships and liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers. Furthermore, the new crane should help prepare the yard for the larger containerships expected to arrive with the forthcoming Panama Canal expansion, permitting the company to reach both sides of a ship at the highest level while alongside its repair quays. Cruise ship projects will, however,
particularly benefit from having the new crane available. Company president D. Loy Stewart, said: “This reach is critical on cruise ship upgrades that involve the movement of hundreds of containers onto one side of the vessel while simultaneously offloading tons of old material off the other side. Clearly the new tower crane will expedite that work considerably.” DSI has also installed a new overhead
workshop crane. This has improved productivity and reduced staff waiting periods while the existing overhead crane was being used by other teams. Furthermore, new hydroblast
equipment has also increased productivity at the yard. “The strength and speed of the new machines has increased our overall square footage coverage in a given timeframe and has cut down on time per vessel,” said Mr Stewart. There have been some environmental
benefits as well from this investment, as both the tower crane and hydroblast units are electric and this reduces fossil
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DSI is one of the largest repair yards on the USA East Coast.
fuel consumption quite considerably. Mr Stewart said: “Historically these would be diesel driven and so the cost of fuel has dropped dramatically.” Overall DSI says the experience of
using the grant funding has been very positive. “We are currently using all the new equipment in our yard daily and we can see that it has helped to speed up productivity in several areas, allowing us to do the same work with fewer man hours. This can’t help but put us in a better position competitively.” Over
the past year repair work
volumes at DSI have remained fairly similar
to 2009 levels. However the
yard has seen a increase in work for international operators, as the US dollar has stayed relatively weak against the Euro. For example the company has achieved particular success in repairing Norwegian-owned seismic survey vessels and German containerships. One of the biggest projects undertaken
recently by DSI last year involved the conversion of the US-flag Overseas Cascade, a 46,000dwt shuttle tanker built at the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard and chartered to Petrobras of Brazil. Overseas Cascade was delivered
to DSI after her first voyage to begin the conversion work. The vessel was fitted with CP propellers and tunnel thrusters from Rolls-Royce, to provide the necessary control accuracy when manoeuvring at loading facilities; a bow platform which included various
The new tower crane has helped boost productivity.
hydraulic components and transfer piping, and a CPP system. The fixed pitch propeller specified for the rest of the tankers under construction in Philadelphia will be replaced with a Kamewa CPP system, using a 5.6m diameter four bladed propeller and a purpose build shaft. At the bow a TT tunnel thruster will be installed, along with a Caterpillar- powered 2250kW generator set. The new Rolls-Royce equipment will
interface with the
vessel’s existing Kongsberg control system. OSG has also contracted DSI to
perform the same scope of work to another newbuild tanker, Overseas Chinook. This work, in fact, got underway in December last year. DSI is one of the largest shiprepair
and conversion yards on the USA East Coast. Its facilities on the Cooper River include three drydocks, the largest being 229m in length, and a floating dock, as well as over 500m of alongside repair quays. SCRT
Shiprepair and Conversion Technology 1st Quarter 2011
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