Charter flight for spare parts

The 95 m long Edda Flora has been part of Norwegian shipping company Østensjo’s fleet since 2008. The Haugesund-based company established in 1974 currently operates around 40 vessels. These offer a wide range of high-quality maritime services for partners operating in the markets of offshore energy, towage, accommodation, and increasingly in recent years, offshore wind. For many years, Østensjo has also been using the Voith Schneider Propeller (VSP) in its fleet. The VSP’s exceptionally short response time to fast changes in direction and thrust make this drive concept ideal for all applications where fast, safe and precise maneuvering even under adverse weather conditions is a basic prerequisite for the safety of vessel and crew – for example in the North Sea, the most important operational area for Østensjo’s ships.

In the course of several weeks of scheduled maintenance on the Edda Flora, which is equipped with two VSP type 36R6-300-2, it emerged that the rocking arms on one of the two 3,600 kW propellers were undersized. “Sooner or later, this could have led to a failure of the propulsion system, forcing the ship to interrupt its mission,” explains Frank Horn, Manager Field Service Marine at Voith. At a minimum, a breakdown would have meant a longer and expensive servicing period. In addition, the economic loss would have been immense. Because the LCV’s schedule is well filled.

An immediate replacement of the six rocking arms during the service slot of several weeks’ duration was therefore added to the agenda at short notice. For the Voith service team, this represented a challenge in several ways. Because the rocking arms are not part of the usual scope of maintenance. Normally, they never need to be replaced, so there are no rocking arms on site. It was therefore necessary to first find available parts in the right size to then transport them promptly to the dock.

Another challenging obstacle was that the damage was identified on a Friday. Nevertheless, the Voith service team was able to find six rocking arms available in the warehouse before the weekend started.

The team just had to find a way of shipping them to Norway as a special delivery. Initially this was a logistical challenge, also because the Scandinavian country is not a member of the EU and therefore trade with it is subject to special regulations. “The fastest and most practical transportation option proved to be a charter flight that we were able to book for the following Tuesday,” says Horn. The many administrative details also had to be clarified within this short time window.

Before the weekend was out, the rocking arms were readied for transport and arrangements made with Østensjo to ensure efficient handling of the spare parts delivery. Also over the weekend, Voith management issued a special clearance for the unusual spare parts delivery. This meant that nothing stood in the way of shipping on the Tuesday.

Tuesday evening the parts had arrived at the dock. In the meantime, the service team adapted the maintenance works to the new circumstances. The aim was to complete the work on time despite the additional challenge. The night shift of the five-man assembly team from Voith and the shipyard was able to start reassembling the system immediately. The Voith assembly team consisted of four highly skilled specialists – two each for the day and night shifts – and the field assembly supervisor.

Thanks to the extensive experience of the Voith team, the assembly work went smoothly. Despite the tight time window, the whole team (customer, shipyard and Voith) was able to hand over the overhauled propulsion system on schedule. The maintenance of the Edda Flora was completed punctually. In the meantime, the ship is back in operation – mostly in the oil and gas fields in the rough waters of the North Sea. And the VSP are once again doing their job with their customary reliability.