Marine Engineers take care of most of the maintenance jobs on the ship but there are certain areas which require specialist services. For example the part of the ship which is immersed in water is subject to the maximum possibility of corrosion and is the most difficult to inspect. It requires special underwater inspection services to cater to this requirement.
Sea water is salty as a result it can damage metal easily. This is exactly why underwater ship inspection is a critical as well as essential function. We will now discuss a little more about the underwater ship inspection. This will definitely help you to understand and appreciate the process better.
Underwater Inspection Services
Underwater Inspection Services
Most of the time the ship is brought to a dry dock and the condition of the ship is analysed. However, there may be a situation when the ship cannot be brought to a dry dock as a result the divers have to dive into the sea and check the status of the ship. This is what we mean by underwater ship inspection. It requires a lot of skill. This is mainly because the job requires a lot of detailed analysis of the situation. There are a lot of risks involved too. The visibility is poor and the repair may take a long time.
The underwater ship inspection is mostly done to check if there is any damage in the hull. Most of the underwater ship inspection is done using cameras that take pictures as well as make videos. These help the experts to understand the problem and take action accordingly.
There are companies that provide underwater inspection services and supply well trained divers who can do the job of underwater ship inspection. These people are well trained and they know their job. These people can also do repairs underwater. This is a highly skilled job that needs special training.
Different Techniques and Tools In Underwater Inspection
The personnel doing underwater inspection may need to use ultra sonics, hull roughness readings, magnetic particle inspection equipment depending on the critical of the situation. The magnetic particle inspection equipment is used mainly for crack detection. The ultra sonic shear wave is also used to study cracks and weld flaws.
They are highly skilled engineers who are trained and certified to dive into deep waters in order to repair a ship. These experts also do a survey of the underwater ship’s hull. This ensures that the ship is in a good condition and the reports are sent to the team on the ship. The underwater ship inspection diver’s team also make reports of the work that they have done.
Other Underwater Inspection Jobs
The underwater ship inspection services team also does propeller polishing and cleaning service. Apart from normal cleaning services, it could be possible that the propeller got damaged due to grounding or collision or any other reason and might need a repair so that the ship can at least take itself to the drydock if the damage is more.
The underwater ship inspection divers may also have to do welding at times to repair the damage. Each service that we have mentioned above is charged as per the critical level of the function and the time required to do the service. Sometime it also depends on the number of people required to solve the problem. There may be some damage that can be handled by a team of three divers whereas there may be a case that will require much more than that. This too changes the cost of the service charged.
We hope you have got a good idea of what underwater ship inspection is all about and how it is done. The team of these specialized divers work all around the week to endure that ships get proper service and they can reach their destinations on time.
Underwater Ship Inspection,
