Steering gear is the machinery used onboard to control the movement of the ship from port side (left side) to the starboard (right side) while the vessel is moving. The steering gear doesn’t produce any effect while the vessel is stationary. The steering gear provides a movement of the rudder in response to a signal…
For a variety of reasons, ships rely on the seawater in which they move and one of the primary functions of seawater is to keep the engine and other sections of the ship cool while they are running. The utilized seawater is then discharged back into the sea, and additional seawater is taken in, resulting…
Sewage is defined as drainage and other wastes from any form of toilets or urinals, drainage from medical premises via wash basins, wash tubs and scuppers located in these premises, drainage from spaces containing live animals and other waste waters when mixed with drainages defined aforementioned. The sewage treatment plant is a biological unit, which…
A bilge system is a piping system installed onboard a vessel for the purpose of removing water that accumulates in enclosed spaces (holds, machinery spaces, cofferdams) as a result of condensation, leakage, washing, or fire fighting. It is also to be capable of controlling flooding in the Engine Room as a result of minimal piping…
Onboard vessel, in general, saturated steam is produced into the oil-fired boiler or the exhaust gas boiler. There are special type of systems, where steam is used for propulsion or electrical generation into the steam turbines. On these cases steam need to be superheated and at high pressure and steam generating systems are more complex…
The fresh water generator is an equipment installed onboard vessels which is used to produce fresh water from sea water. There are two major ways of producing fresh water onboard vessels: vacuum evaporation and reverse osmosis, of which the vacuum evaporation comprises of two types: tube type and plate type. Each system has its own…
The vessel air system comprises, normally, of Starting air system, Control air system and General service/working air system.The starting air system is supplied by two or three main air compressors which provide air, usually, to two main air reservoirs and is used to start the main engine and the generator engines. The generators may also…
Marine boilers are steam generators where heat resulted from combustion of a fuel, from nuclear reaction or thermal effect of electrical current is transferred to the water which is heated and vaporized. There are two types of boilers in marine industry: Fire tube boiler is the type of boiler where the exhaust gases resulted from…
Centrifugal pumps are hydraulically powered machines that transport energy to fluids (most notably liquids) via the action of a field of centrifugal forces. Their primary function is to move fluids by increasing pressure. Centrifugal pumps come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but its operating principle and fluid dynamic characteristics stay unchanged.Centrifugal pumps are…
Purifiers clean fuels and lubricants as well as processing bilge water and sludge, but onboard vessels they are mainly part of fuel and oil treatment system. Purifiers are usually under a junior engineer responsibility and, sometimes they proves to be real nightmares for some of them, mainly because of lack of knowledge regarding operating principle,…