Shipboard Maintenance Research Articles

Additive manufacturing aboard a moving vessel at sea using passively stabilized stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing

In this paper we investigate the use of passive stabilization to support stereolithography (SLA) printing aboard a moving vessel at sea. 3D printing is a useful technology onboard a seagoing vessel to support engineering development, shipboard maintenance, and other applications when land-based manufacturing resources are unavailable. SLA printed material is particularly suited for underwater applications requiring sealed housings, since SLA printers are capable of producing high-resolution models that are fully solid and impervious to water. Hydrostatic pressure can quickly compromise parts created using standard fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing. However, the dynamic environment onboard a moving vessel could impact the ability of an SLA printer to selectively cure voxels in a liquid resin bath as it undergoes constant motion, and can cause spilling over the walls of the resin tank. Using passive stabilization platforms onboard moving research vessels, we successfully printed a number of parts with no discernable differences from those produced in a traditional land-based laboratory. As a practical demonstration of this capability, we printed at sea underwater pressure housings that remained sealed to 200 m water depth with functional integrated internal electronics. No post-print machining was required to create the sealed housings. This work lays the foundation for lithographic 3D printing in seagoing oceanographic and naval applications, and additionally presents an economical approach for producing custom waterproof pressure housings in the field.

Chasing a Fault across Ship and Shore

Knowledge management (KM) in the U.S. Navy is championed as a strategic initiative to improve shipboard maintenance and troubleshooting at a distance. The approach requires capturing, coordinating, and distributing domain expertise in electronics and computer engineering via advanced information and communication technologies. Coordination must be achieved to ensure ship readiness. A potential challenge for human performance technologists is to develop robust theoretical frameworks to analyze and explain existing practice within this context. To illustrate, we present the case of U.S. naval sailors and civilian subject-matter experts (SMEs) collaboratively troubleshooting complex shipboard radar systems across ship and shore. Adapting perspectives from organizational theory, information science, and educational psychology, we conduct a multi-level analysis of the context of distributed knowledge and work. Findings suggest that regulative and normative restrictions, boundary spanners and objects, and disruption of coordination across system components influence practice substantively. Implications for research and practice, including a readdressing of the existing cannon of analytical frameworks are offered.

Shipboard Maintenance: What Do Surface Warfare Officers Need to Know—and When Do They Need to Know It?

AbstractAs the Navy has moved into the 21st century and the War on Terror has unfolded, the challenges to ship maintenance management have never been greater. These challenges include: a continuing high operating tempo compounded by less predictable schedules and coupled with fewer, shorter scheduled opportunities to conduct maintenance; a fleet of fewer albeit more capable—and therefore more complex—ships; a trend toward smaller, perhaps less stable crews to operate and maintain the ships; and continuing competition for the available budget dollars between operations and maintenance, as well as between current and future readiness concerns. In an era of “operations focused maintenance,” what is the role of the Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) in managing their shipboard maintenance? What do they need to know, and when do they need to know it? This paper addresses these questions and related issues and offers, where applicable, some near‐term and long‐term recommendations for improvement.

Pollution Prevention COTS Equipment: Lessons Learned and Return on Investment

ABSTRACT The goal of the Pollution Prevention (P2) Afloat Program is source reduction of hazardous materials (HM) used in standard shipboard maintenance and other afloat activities. Executive Order 12856 requires federal facilities to reduce the release of hazardous substances by 50 percent by 1999 compared to a 1994 baseline. Studies show that up to 70 percent of the hazardous waste processed at Navy facilities is obtained from HM off‐loads from ships. The P2 Afloat Team is achieving source reduction goals by identifying, assessing, and implementing source reduction opportunities aboard ships, and focusing on the direct use or minimal reengineering of commercial‐off‐the‐shelf products. There have been many challenges and lessons learned during research, procurement, test and evaluation, installation, and return on investment analyses of P2 Afloat equipment. Applying these lessons learned regarding pollution prevention in the maritime environment is essential in order to meet the challenges of the Fleet in the new millennium.

An Affordable Approach for Quality‐Assured Shipboard Maintenance Information

ABSTRACTAcquisition and logistics professionals recognize the challenges in synchronizing maintenance and supply support information over the life cycle of shipboard systems and equipment. Decisions and judgments made during full‐scale development, then described in maintenance documents and allowance lists, may become outdated for any number of reasons once the ship deploys. Thus, the fleet faces the possibility of out‐of‐sync maintenance support information at virtually any time.Initiatives during the 1980s which reconcile shipboard maintenance and support data include Integrated Logistics Overhauls (ILOs) and Ships Configuration and Logistics Support Information System (SCLSIS). These initiatives aim to ensure all shipboard equipments have current maintenance documents and up‐to‐date allowance lists, but they are expensive, time consuming, and scheduled every 4 to 5 years. Shipboard officers care about today's problem, particularly the next deployment. ILO and SCLSIS products are not always timed to the next deployment, nor is it practical or cost‐effective to do so.Adopting the perspective of shipboard maintenance and supply officers, the authors identify three fundamental maintenance support information needs which quality assure readiness to perform a ship's mission:Technically complete, accurate, and up‐to‐date maintenance documents for all mission critical equipments.One‐to‐one correlation between authorized maintenance parts required and authorized allowance/ordering data for mission critical equipments.Assurances that all allowed mission critical parts needed for shipboard maintenance are on board or will be delivered prior to deployment.The authors maintain that the most affordable solution to shipboard maintenance support information quality assurance is to select mission critical equipments with significant CasRep or shipboard “trouble” histories and resolve any maintenance support information discrepancies prior to deployment “real‐time.” This approach supplements, but does not replace, the ILO and SCLSIS processes. This approach was designed using total quality management principles to assure mission effectiveness.

SHIPBOARD COGENERATION — A SECOND GENERATION DESIGN APPROACH

ABSTRACTOn the CG‐47 class, gas turbine electric generators are operating in a shipboard cogeneration system in conjunction with a successful and reliable waste heat recovery system which provides steam for auxiliary services. The current application philosophy for waste heat recovery from gas turbine auxiliary engines aboard Navy ships, however, has reached a technological plateau.The development and implementation of a second generation waste heat recovery system (WHRS) design could produce substantial benefits for future naval shipboard applications. This paper discusses methods of optimizing the interface between the gas turbine and the waste heat boiler, relocating boiler components, utilizing natural instead of forced circulation in the boiler, and reducing the complexity of feedwater treatment subsystems.Implementaion of integrated design features for a second generation waste heat recovery system could result in increased steam production, reduced boiler and auxiliary space requirements, reduced weight, and a lower shipboard center of gravity. In addition, a reduction in installed system cost and manhours spent on water treatment and routine shipboard maintenance could be obtained, along with significant, continued shipboard energy savings.

TRENDS IN ILS: THE ROLE OF ILS IN SHIP SYSTEM DESIGN

AbstractThe new “design to price” approach to ship acquisition programs levies manning, cost, and displacement constraints on the ship design. It has had a significant impact on both designing a ship and planning its integrated logistic support (ILS). Heretofore, the investment of dollars in design to improve maintenance and logistic support could be justified by its effect on a ship's life cycle cost. In new ship acquisition programs, however, any investment, either to reduce maintenance or increase performance capability must be under the ceiling placed over acquisition costs. Compounding the problem for ILS is the trend toward a reduced allowance of shipboard personnel in the new acquisition programs. It means that there are fewer crew members available for either operational or maintenance functions.These cost and manning constraints pose a problem in logistic support planning, and has prompted consideration of logistic support early in design. ILS must become involved early if it is (1) to affect the design process to the end that a ship lends itself well to the new trend in maintenance, (2) to provide other support that will increase a ship's period of operational readiness, and (3) to accomplish both (1) and (2) without pushing through the ceiling on acquisition costs.New maintenance concepts being proposed deviate from the conventional. They provide for minimum shipboard maintenance by deferring scheduled maintenance to Fleet and Shore Maintenance Activities. The trend in ILS is the shift of the maintenance burden from the organizational level (ship) to the intermediate (tender) and depot (shipyard) level of maintenance.This paper examines this new trend in ILS, particularly its impact on the design of a major ship, the Patrol Frigate. It also contemplates the effect of the trend on future Fleet and Shore Activities.

DEVELOPING A STATISTICALLY DESIGNED EXPERIMENT FOR COMPARING TECHNICAL MANUALS ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABSTRACTThis paper describes how the increased numbers and complexity of electronics equipment in Navy ships has increased shipboard maintenance requirements, and describes the search for an improved maintenance manual concept. It describes one new concept, the Symbolic Integrated Maintenance Manual (SIMM), and describes the difference between SIMM and the currently used conventional manual, and efforts being made to evaluate the differences statistically. It explains why these evaluations must be properly planned according to statistical principles in order to come up with conclusions in which you can have confidence. The paper details the factors that must be considered in developing a designed experiment for evaluating the maintenance effectiveness of technical manuals. It also includes the essentials of the designed experiment developed by the Navy for the SIMM versus conventional manual comparison; this experiment will be adaptable, however, for use in comparing the effectiveness of any concepts in technical manuals.

SHIPBOARD MAINTENANCE OF ROTARY PUMPS

Journal of the American Society for Naval EngineersVolume 56, Issue 1 p. 101-106 SHIPBOARD MAINTENANCE OF ROTARY PUMPS First published: February 1944 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-3584.1944.tb02123.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume56, Issue1February 1944Pages 101-106 RelatedInformation