Learning by doing

In August 2012, Scheldepoort Repair & Conversion Yard was awarded a contract to modernise and upgrade the propeller shaft lines and generator sets for four Air Defence and Command Frigates. The new Wartsila-Deutz D620 engines of the generator sets – four on each vessel – are delivered, engineered and modified by Wartsila. To be able to work with these engines during periodical maintenance, eight maintenance mechanics from the Naval Maintenance Establishment were recently trained at the Wartsila Land & Sea Academy (WLSA) in Waalwijk, the Netherlands.

”After the overhaul, the frigates will be more fuel efficient, quieter and more environmentally friendly, but also more powerful and equipped with smaller and lighter systems”, says Klaas Kuper, senior account manager at Wartsila Netherlands B.V. The first vessel, Hr. Ms. De Zeven Provincien, has been revised already, Hr. Ms. Tromp is currently in the dock and Hr. Ms. De Ruyter and Hr. Ms. Evertsen will follow shortly. Jaap van den Corput, manager of the Dutch WLSA: ”WLSA is a training institute within Wartsila Services. Our training centres are located in eleven countries worldwide. Next to training people, we also create the courses ourselves. Our centre consists of simulators for electrical training and a workshop for overhaul and maintenance training. Our trainers have several backgrounds; some of them are former Wartsila mechanics, others are professional technical trainers. In total we train about 1,300 people per year and offer about 70 sorts of training courses of which about 70% are internal courses.”

WLSA does not only offer training to Wartsila employees, but also to clients, even tailor-made if requested. Van den Corput: ”We have an advantage compared to companies like Caterpillar and MAN. They also have their own training centres, but our training package is more diverse. We offer generic courses and training for non- Wartsila products as well, for which we hire external trainers. We not only train on land, but also on board of ships, so the people are trained with their own installations.” Henk Jan te Brake, engine expert at Wartsila Netherlands B.V., trains the mechanics from the Naval Maintenance Establishment: ”In the mornings, we look into the theory, in the afternoons, we put this theoretical knowledge into practise. I teach them the operating principles and the set-up of the engines, but we also take a look at other systems on board. Every engine type has its own specifics, for example a different setup, different settings and different construction details. When a trainee makes a mistake, I let him go on until he gets stuck, so he can find out where he went wrong. This is a better teaching method than correcting a trainee immediately. The fun part of this week is the fact that together, the guys have 300 years of experience, which means we could go in-depth from the start.” The trainees are very enthusiastic. ”Our work involves complete overhauls of navy vessels, from RIBs to frigates, all with different sorts of engines, so we are already experienced”, say Ivo Riemers and Frank van Zanten. ”However, here we learn a lot about the specifics of the Wartsila-Deutz D620, which is completely new to us. After this training we know all the ins and outs of this engine.”

Gail van den Hanenberg