The turbocharger parts exchange programme has existed for more than 14 years within turbocharger suppliers within Europe. Initially ship owners were recommended to keep major components on stock for spare purposes, however this turned out to be a cost full investment. The parts were stored onboard the ships for longer periods of times (2 years +) where exposed to vibrations. Critical components such as turbocharger bearings failed and rotors were out of balance, when installed. Further the vessel crews were not skilled to overhaul turbochargers, as they did not have the experience.
This initially resulted in pioneering changes from the Scandinavian ship owner community, who together with turbocharger suppliers (example PJ Diesel Engineering and Turboned) created the “exchange kit” containing all components needed for overhaul and at the same time served as emergency response kit.
By having a turbocharger response kit or several for sister vessels with identical installations resulted in savings on investment for major components for each vessel. By storing and issuing response plans from suppliers, the ship owners could be sure that all rotors were newly balanced and bearings not exposed to vibrations. Further the ship owners were no longer dependent of workshop services from shore and the overhaul time was reduced as well. Superintendents could now strike turbocharger overhauls during dry docking, as the response kits could be deployed and installed at any given time.
The response systems within turbochargers were later applied in to other critical engine components creating fast turnaround, minimum investment and a proactive environmental approach. The ship owners started to open up for repairs versus general policy of strictly new parts. The amount of investment, compared to response time and general recycling policy made more than sense.
Additionally the ship owners were no longer 100 % dependent of the manufactures delivery policies and could buy bulk orders with long delivery time for better pricing.
This is one of our advantages today within reconditioning and parts exchange – We were pioneering the systems and have put much effort into development over the years (reconditioning processes, response plans, trading patterns, strategic location and service availability).
Ship owners today trust the kits to their partners for readiness at any given time.
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