Ultrasonic Safety & Survey Equipments

Thursday, 6 February 2014

Ultrasonic Testing Of Hatch Covers for the Modern Ships

How would you feel if you go out and forget to close the main door of your home? Obviously you would feel horrible about and would cancel your purpose of going out just to return and make sure your home is safe. What is it exactly that made you feel uneasy and urged you to return? Surely it’s the precious things that you have inside your home and your fear that a burglar would be happy to get invited. The thought about losing your precious things and the fear of them getting damaged is what made you turn back mid way or to ask a friendly neighbor to pay a visit and lock the door if you cannot return.

Now face it, how would you feel about a package containing precious gifts for your loved ones being sent through the cargo and learning that it got damaged on the way. It is a fact that you will lose your temper over the cargo company, file a suit against them (if you are able to), or at least file a claim for the damages and ask for the price back. This is exactly what every shipping company faces a hundred times each year when they get the goods they are carrying damaged. The leaking hatch covers are the culprits because many of the ship’s sailing out there have never had a testing of tightness of hatch with ultrasound done till now.

As these ships have never run an ultrasonic tightness test, they are filled with holes and the crew has no idea where the holes are. The ultrasonic test is designed to search for holes which are the obvious leaks. Considering the huge body of the ship, it is impossible for a human being to find out the holes in it with his eyes or senses. Hence a tool is required to find out the location of the leaks and then determine their refilling procedure. Some ship owners are still using the worn out water hose testing methods. It costs a lot of money, time and energy hence the delays caused by it are also a huge setback and the reason why most ships go unchecked for a very long time.

The hatch cover ultrasonic tightness testing on the other hand saves time, money and energy. It is rapid and precise so the person using this method to find leaks in a transport ship can complete the testing within a single day (for the standard sized ships). In case the ship is extremely huge, the time ratio can vary. As this testing method requires a single person to complete the testing, it costs a lot cheaper than the water hose test which requires a huge team of people to complete the test and do the same, mark out the holes and leave it to the ship owners to take the decision what to do next.

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