China: CIC Changxing Shipyard Completes MV Stella Eagle Repair Project

On October 26, CIC Changxing Shipyard completed the repair of MV Stella Eagle with owner’s satisfaction. The 18-years old VLOC MV Stella Eagle (L*B*D: 327.5m * 57.20m * 30.4m) belongs to a Korean shipping company. The major repair projects were M/E, A/E and hull sand blasting and painting.

But when the ship went into the drydock, it was found that the rudder pin bearing was damaged, the pin sleeve was loosened, the pin hole was seriously rusted, and the propeller cap was missing.

Facing such a issue, CIC Changxing shipyard took quick response of making reasonable arrangements for blasting & dry-docking repair and used the interval of blasting to remove the rudder pin into the workshop. The workers quickly measured the size of the rudder pin holes, handed over to the ship side, and arranged to prepare bore hole. When the working staff calibrated the device, they also found that rudder blade and rudder hole axis could not match. The yard’s workers worked overnight, dismantled & assembled the device several times, measure the offset of rudder blade at different angles. With the joint efforts from various departments of the shipyard, the pin hole of rudder was born in the shortest time and the rudder pin repair work was also completed earlier than expected. The smooth installation of rudder pin & successful operational rudder test ensured the ship’s drydock repair period.

As for hull sand blasting & painting, the whole working area was 36270 m2, including 29,050 m2 of waterline, straight bottom, and flat bottom(100% SA2 blasting), 7220 m2 of freeboard(25% SA2 blasting). Facing such a big project, the project department coordinated with other departments immediately, especially the coating workshop, equipped more facilities and workers to ensure 24-hour continuous working. Meanwhile, the yard communicated with the shipowner and painting suppliers to develop a reasonable procedure according to the actual situation and weather condition, shipyard. The Project was fulfilled by two steps. Firstly, the workers made sand blasting of the freeboard & waterline and did the first coat. When the paint was dry, the workers continued to do sand blasting of other parts. The highest record of painting was 842 barrels a day. With the active efforts from various departments, the entire paint job was finished in the afternoon of October 19th.That meant the shipyard finished nearly 30,000 m2 sand blasting and four coats within 7 days including 1 raining day, which has accumulated valuable experience for CIC Changxing Shipyard.

[mappress]

Source: csgcic, October 31, 2011