ARTICLE IN DRYDOCK MAGAZINE

Control and Instrumentation Specialist

For more than 25 years Bond Instrumentation and Process Control Ltd has been providing the world-wide marine industry with an all-embracing service and support capability for shipboard instrumentation and automation/control equipment and systems. Maintenance and servicing of such systems has been a core activity of the company since its formation in 1975 and this is reflected in the variety of tasks undertaken. These range from breakdown call-outs, planned refits and drydockings, voyage repairs and major upgrading of ships' electronic systems to repair of circuit boards.

      The main area of Bond Instrumentation's activities involves control and monitoring of engineroom plant employing pneumatics and electrics/electronics. Typical of the equipment and systems with which Bond's engineers are familiar are: main propulsion controls for both diesel engines and steam turbines; boiler controls and steam-raising plant; auxiliary engines and power management; machinery monitoring, logging and control; cargo control systems; gas detection and fire alarm equipment and general process plant control covering temperatures, pressures, levels etc. However the company's activities are not confined to the engineroom as it also has extensive experience of cargo pumping and inert gas systems for tankers, and refrigeration controls and data logging systems for reefer vessels.

Recent Contracts

Bond Instrumentation – in co-operation with its partner Lyngsø Marine A/S of Denmark, one of the world's leading suppliers of electronic equipment – also offers a range of control and monitoring systems for newbuildings, conversions and retrofits. For example, a control system based on standard Lyngsø equipment can be designed and built to meet customer's specifications for such a project. This capability was demonstrated in July of this year when a UK-owned bulk carrier's alarm, monitoring and power management systems were retrofitted with a Lyngsø Marine A/S package of equipment, in Latvia.

      Simon Hayes, Bond Instrumentation's sales manager, pointed out to DRYDOCK that where equipment is required to replace obsolete relay-based logic systems, Bond can offer alternative, approved PLC units to provide the same functions, in less space with the further benefits of a lower power drain and increased reliability. One example of this concerned a damaged electronic remote control system for a B & W KLM80 main engine. This equipment was not only beyond economic repair but was also obsolete and was therefore replaced with a PLC-based system designed by Bond Instrumentation and tested and approved by the classification society, all this being done in less than four weeks. Installation on the vessel took place while it was discharging cargo alongside, followed by extensive sea trials which confirmed that all control functions were to the specification.

      Bond Instrumentation's portfolio of recent project work and refit work is full of similar operations carried out by a variety of shiprepair yards for many well-known ship owners and managers. Ranking high amongst these clients is the Ministry of Defence with many Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) vessels receiving attention.

       As this issue of DRYDOCK closes for press, Bond Instrumentation's managing director, Brian Blackwell has announced the successful completion of sea trials for a replacement MCAS (Machinery Control and Surveillance) System installation in an RFA vessel. The ship concerned is the 32 000 ton Fort Victoria,  which is classed by Lloyds Register with UMS notation for unmanned machinery space and operates as a combined fleet support tanker/stores ship for the Royal Navy.  

       The Bond system was designed and built in-house from placement of contract and to final factory acceptance test within eight months, and fitted onto the ship during its 96-day refit period at A & P Tyne Ltd's shipyard at Wallsend. Brian Blackwell stated that the company won

 'Following on from successes in carrying out modifications to temperature control systems on some product/chemical tankers owned and managed within the UK, the owners have tasked Bond with providing a similar solution to another of their fleet,'

 Simon Hayes, Sales Manager, Bond Instrumentation  

 this contract against fierce competition and is building another system for the sistership Fort George, whose MCAS system is scheduled for replacement at refit in 2003.

      The new MCAS system is based around the latest Allen Bradley ControlLogix PLC and uses dual redundant communications via fibre optics. It comprises 20 outstations located around the vessel and eight workstations using the latest TFT screens. Workstations are placed in various locations, including the machinery control room, wheelhouse and the RAS (Replenishment at Sea) control room. The system's 5000 I/O is used for monitoring and control of all major systems, including propulsion control, cargo and valve control, tank monitoring, auxiliary temperature/pressure control and fire surveillance.

      Brian Blackwell added that the Royal Fleet Auxiliary has expressed its delight at the final product and design solution, as did the attending Lloyd's Register surveyors at the relative ease of commissioning for a system of this size.

      Among other recent Bond Instrumentation projects completed in the first half of the year to which Simon Hayes drew DRYDOCK's attention was the upgrade and replacement of the CPP control system on the Lord Hinton, managed by Lothian Shipping. The original equipment had become obsolete and was proving difficult to maintain and keep operational. The sister ship Sir Charles Parsons will undergo a similar upgrade at her next dry-docking.

      He also informed us of other projects currently in progress by Bond Instrumentation one of which is the installation of replacement thruster control systems on a diving support vessel. The replacement systems were accepted by the owners and classification society at a factory test, and the full installation of the replacement systems to the vessel's six thrusters will be undertaken over a period of time due to the vessel's tight working schedule.

      'Following on from successes in carrying out modifications to temperature control systems on some product/chemical tankers owned and managed within the UK, the owners have tasked Bond with providing a similar solution to another of their fleet', said Simon Hayes. He explained, 'The modifications have been required to decrease the temperature variations on slow speed propulsion engine jacket cooling systems whilst manoeuvring'.

      Other projects and conversions are in various states of discussion with respective yards and ship owners and Bond Instrumentation is quite hopeful of converting some of these into significant orders.

PCB Repairs

As mentioned earlier, Bond Instrumentation also carries out repairs to printed circuit boards and is seeing an increase in this activity from a variety of ship owners and managers. With regard to this type of work, Simon Hayes explains, 'Bond Instrumentation will guarantee that any PCB it has repaired only leaves its workshop after it has been fully tested'. He added that not 'all third party' type PCB repairers have the capability to do this. Bond's PCB repairs also comply with the company's ISO9001 procedures. One area where there has been a huge increase in PCB's for repair relates to deck machinery, especially PCB's for deck cranes. In addition to these repairs Bond is able to offer a manufacturing facility for owners looking to keep existing PCB-based automation systems operational without the need to upgrade or retrofit  existing systems due to the length of lifetime a vessel has remaining.

      In a totally different development, Simon Hayes said that Bond Instrumentation moved to larger premises in June of this year. Because of increased turnover and more successes with retrofits and upgrades, the company's former premises located near Chelmsford, which had been in use for the last 18 years, were no longer adequate. The new facilities are at Tollesbury on the Essex coast. This move will allow the company to expand especially in relation to its partnerships with Lyngsø Marine A/S, mentioned above, and Schaller Automation GmbH, a company well-known for its Visatron range of oil mist detectors. 

Bond Instrumentation wish to thank DRYDOCK for their permission in reproducing this article.