Portable Oil Analysis
Instruments
save 15 hours per week and improve accuracy on Navy Sealift Ship
The United States Naval Ship (USNS) WATSON is one of the large, medium-speed, roll-on, roll-off (LMSR) ships that have significantly expanded the nation’s sealift capacity. The WATSON has a considerable amount of machinery including main engines, generators, and cranes that need oil tested on a regular basis to detect potential problems and eliminate the possibility of a catastrophic failure. The test kits used in the past were time-consuming and their accuracy was questionable. The (USNS) WATSON is operated by Ocean Shipholdings, Inc. (OSI) under contract to Military Sealift Command.
Four years ago, the ship switched to the Spectro FluidScan® Q1000 handheld lubricant condition monitor and two years ago added the SpectroVisc Q3000 portable viscometer. The Q10000 performs 87 tests and provides 174 results in about two thirds of the time it took to conduct 138 tests yielding 138 results with the chemical test kit.
“The Spectro portable instruments help us get more done in less time while providing results that are more accurate and reliable than single-test kits,” said William Maus, an employee of OSI and Chief Engineer of the USNS WATSON. “When I show them to engineers from other ships they ask when they can get theirs.”
Major transporter of military equipment Military Sealift Command operates approximately 110 non- combatant, civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and move military cargo and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces and coalition partners. The WATSON can carry a variety of military equipment in support of Army and Marine Corps operations. The WATSON and other ships of its class were the major transporters of military equipment during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and during the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq that began after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The WATSON is 950 feet long, has a beam of 106 feet, a fully loaded displacement of 62,644 tons, and a service speed of 24 knots. It has a cargo-carrying capacity of more than 380,000 square feet, equivalent to almost eight football fields. There are two gas turbine engines, each with an output of 32,000 brake horse power (bhp), driving two shafts with 24 foot controllable pitch propellers at 95 revolutions per minute (rpm) at full power. The ship’s diesel generators are capable of producing 12,500 KW of electrical power. The ship has many hydraulically powered cranes, cargo doors, and ramps.
Importance of oil analysis
“Our engineering department consists of 11 people which is not a lot for a 950-foot ship,” Maus said. “We are responsible for millions of dollars’ worth of machinery which could at any moment become critical to our national defence. As in all major Navy ships, oil analysis plays a critical role on the ship by alerting us to problems that have the potential to damage a vital system and by providing information that enables us to efficiently allocate our scarce resources by planning maintenance based on actual need as opposed to simple intervals of time.”
In the past, WATSON engineers used test kits for oil analysis. Engineers collected oil samples, brought them back to the control room, and mixed them with the chemicals in the test kit. It was necessary to perform tests in the control room in order to maintain a stable environment for the test chemicals and for the test equipment. The chemicals used in the testing process are classified as HAZMAT, which poses problems for the shipping of chemicals and disposal of the used reagents. It takes about five minutes to collect a sample, five minutes to bring it back to the control room, and five minutes to perform each of the five tests required for generator oil for a total of 35 minutes. Maus was concerned about the accuracy and repeatability of the tests because they were dependent on using the right amount of both oil and chemicals and reliability of the test kit base equipment. He was also concerned about the need to work with hazardous chemicals.
Continued on page 10 8 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.128 AUGUST 2015
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