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BARRY, SOUTH WALES, UK – When ships take on ballast, they take on more than water. They also take on any number of marine organisms that hitch along for the ride. It’s how Alligatorweed hitched a ride from South America to Alabama. And how Purple Loosestrife came on over from Eurasia.
The problem is such that the international community has responded with diverse rules and regulations about ballast handling, including proposed global regulations put out by the International Maritime Organization and, in some cases, even stricter regional regulations like those put out by the state of California. Essentially, you’ve got to kill off all marine life living in your ballast before you expel it.
What all of this means is that practically all ships, around 60,000 of them, that travel the world need ballast water treatment systems, which are generally installed in and around the engine room, where space is tight. You can imagine the workflow the naval architecture team at Harris Pye, a global player in the offshore oil and gas, industrial and marine industries, had to go through as they proposed solutions for clients: pick out a potential system to solve the problem, measure potential spots in the ship’s engine room, put together a plan, make a presentation to the client.
Then the client says, “Is there a less expensive option?” Do that all over again.
Enter 3D laser scanning. “We do quite a lot of work offshore,” said Chris David, group technical director at Harris Pye, “where it’s quite difficult to survey.” Oil companies started providing CAD diagrams that resulted from laser scans from which Harris Pye could fabricate.
Complete story at:
http://www.sparpointgroup.com/News/Vol10No14-Harris-Pye-takes-3D-on-board/
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