When container ships are being loaded there are several tons of weight on the loaded side. Normally, the ship would tilt under the weight of the container and this could create an unbalance. This is one of the many challenges of ship building that S-two successfully solves with its system solutions.
By carefully controlling the ballast, the ship‘s pitch and yaw are permanently balanced while loading. This compensation control is achieved by operating valves in the water ballast tanks. In this way, water is systematically taken in or released so that the ship remains stable throughout the loading process.
Multifunctional ship control system
As well as the ballast operation to prevent and compensate for imbalance during loading and unloading as well as to adjust the draft, there are other areas where the S-two‘s ship control system is used: moving bunker oil and pumping the bilges, as examples. While the various valves of the different tanks within a ship used to be controlled by pressing a button, today they can be fully integrated and controlled using a PC panel. S-two offers the multifunctional ship control system Poseidon for this purpose. It is a modular system that can be customised to meet the requirements of container ships, oil and chemical tankers, gas tankers, multipurpose shipping, and luxury liners.
S-two places great importance on creating high quality total solutions for these application areas. This means that all the system components must meet the high demands of ship building.
“For equipping our control cabinets, we choose components with GL certification. This makes the total approval, perhaps by Germanischer Lloyd, of the control cabinet easier,” explained Christoph Ihnen, Technical Manager at S-two.
“In addition, high quality and compactness of the cabinet’s components is important to us. All this is provided by Weidmüller‘s power supply units and Ethernet switches.“ In addition, high quality and compactness of the cabinet’s components is important to us. All this is provided by Weidmüller‘s power supply units and Ethernet switches.
High availability thanks to a redundant power supply system
Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has issued GL approval for the sturdy switch mode power supplies of the PRO-M range and Weidmüller‘s Industrial Ethernet switches. These components can be used without restrictions in national and international ship construction, in marine technical buildings and the offshore area. In S-two‘s systems, Weidmüller‘s components impress with their distinct advantages.
“We increase system availability by building in redundant power supply systems. For this we use diode modules from Weidmüller in addition to the PRO-M power supplies,” said Ihnen. “The main reason for this choice was that we do not need to leave space for cooling between the various PRO-M modules that we install in the electrical cabinet; they can be installed directly next to one another. In addition, Weidmüller‘s modules are available in 20 A and 40 A output versions. Our customised systems can therefore be fitted according to the requirements with a matching power supply solution.”
Compact communications
For Ethernet communication between the control cabinet and the work stations, like those in the machine control room or in the cargo office, S-two uses Fast Ethernet switches from Weidmüller in their systems. These are fitted with sturdy aluminium housings and are designed for use in harsh industrial environments. At just 3 cm width, they include their own power supplies and let S-two make space-saving installations in their control cabinets.
“With Weidmüller‘s GL approved electronics components, we are given a high quality solution for powering and communicating in our customised ship control systems,” explained Ihnen. “Accompanied by the comprehensive service that Weidmüller‘s sales team offers, the components fit perfectly into our systems.”
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