Ultrasonic Hatch Cover Tightness Testing Is Crucial For Every Ship

When we are traveling by road on a highway, we keep all the windows and doors of our vehicle shut tightly. Why do we do so? Is it because the AC is turned on? Or is it simply our instincts that tell us to keep them shut tightly? The answer can be more relevant to the latter, but it would not be wrong to say that the actual reason can be a mixture of the two as well.

When the air conditioning is turned on, opening the window would lose all the cooling and the atmosphere would turn extremely hot inside the vehicle. In case you have not turned on the air conditioning in the vehicle because the climate is too tempting, you cannot gather speed more than the ordinary because the gust of the wind will blow away everything you have inside. Even the tiniest crack can create the most annoying whistle which indicates the window is not completely shut.

This is something we are all too aware of because at some point of our life (usually childhood), we have tried to keep the window of the vehicle open while rushing at unusual speeds. The outside air can damage everything inside and if the pressure of the air entering is too much, more than the vehicle’s body can handle (in case of airplanes where air pressure increases too much it can harm the body), everything blows up in an instant ending everything in tatters.

Consider the scenario where a giant transport ship, filled with goods worth millions of dollars and also laden with a hundred containers is rushing through the Atlantic Ocean. The breeze of the ocean is rarely calm; it is powerful enough to push the heaviest weight in the direction it pleases. What would happen if the hatch covers are leaking? Or are not tightly shut? What if the tightness of hatch with ultrasound has never been checked before letting the ship sail towards its destination hundreds of miles away?

The answer is too predictable, the goods would be eventually destroyed and the consequences would have to be beard by the company owning the transport ship. It would be responsible to pay for all the damages that have incurred to the goods on board and also questioned for showing negligence towards the hatch cover ultrasonic tightness testing. Running the test before commencing the voyage would have certainly saved the company from such a distressful plight at the end of the voyage.

Checking Tightness of Hatch with Ultrasound Is the Best Method

Every transport ship’s staff working in the present age is fighting against the unexpected springing of leakages in the different parts of the body. With so many trips and stops to make each year, a new ship only manages to maintain its gleam and sheen for so little time. The wear and tear causes damages too early and the ship starts screaming for repairs. The hatch cover ultrasonic tightness testing is the best way today to do a complete checkup of the ship to learn about the areas that cause trouble.

Shipping business is not a bed of roses. Once you have been handed over the goods to be delivered at any point, you have to make sure that they are delivered in the best form. Any damage done on your part can hold your company accountable to pay for the damages and unfortunately, it happens a lot of times.

Since a lot of company owners are still not using the ultrasonic technology to find the leaks and repair them, they are using the old manual methods. The manual methods are not at all very cheap nor are they very friendly with the ship. One popular method consists of dousing the entire ship with high pressure water. This way it widens the small gaps and cracks in the ship’s body and makes it visible to the human eye. Since the ship is not at all small, it can take many days just to make the ship completely wet. For the best results the task is completed in a matter of phases. Starting from one end and going all the way to the last.

Sometimes the cracks are in a position not easily recognizable and they have to apply the water again and again. This can eat up an entire day on a single spot. Imagine if you spend just a month to find the hidden leaks in your ship and then you would be notified of another month required to repairs them. You end up losing two working months and the loss is incalculable.

That is why companies that have sensible managers opt for checking the tightness of hatch with ultrasound. It allows the entire checking to be completed in a single day or two at the most. The ship can then be sent for repairs and the owners won’t lose months being out of business. The ultrasonic is the future of the ship’s tightness testing and the companies doing it are now more profitable than the ones who keep on denying its usefulness and stick to the old methods.

Ship Owners Enjoy Speedy Work by Using Technology

To conquer the biggest challenge of the shipping industry, many methods have been adopted to manage leaking hatch covers. The attempt to eliminate wastage of goods during the shipping process is a battle waging for a long time now. Now with the help of modern technology, tightness of hatch with ultrasound has provided the much sought relief the ship owners and managers have been in search for. By applying the new techniques they have managed to make their transport ship much secure and safe for the cargo and because of this they are able to reduce the amount of fines they had to pay every time.

A few years ago when the ultrasonic testing was not available to everyone, the shipping industry applied a way of manual testing. The testing was a painfully lengthy procedure and it was something that most of the ship owners and managers were afraid to have their ships undergo. The procedure took a very long time to complete because it was totally done in the manual way. The first step was to completely dry the ship. A team of workers could be seen with mops and other cleaning items, removing dirt and drying the deck, walls and other areas of the ship. The bigger the ship was, the more time it required and the higher it would cost.

After the drying process was completed, it was carefully inspected by a team of inspectors. They would mark areas where they were skeptical about hidden holes and cracks. The workers would then start pumping water in high pressure motors and pumps and apply pressurized water to the areas and then see if water had found a way to the other side. The process would go on and on with applying the water pressure once and then inspecting and then again repeating the process. It took weeks in only this process and then after many hectic hours of work, when the inspectors pronounced their job done, the ship would then be sent for repairs with all the damaged areas marked with chalk.

After the repairs were completed, which took another week or more, the ship was again inspected to see if any point was missed. This entire process kept the ship out of work for as long as it was undergoing repairs. The costs incurred were too much to bear, and the loss for being out of work was another blow to the finances. Now everything of that type is eliminated thanks to the hatch cover ultrasonic tightness testing.