• Transport and infrastructure

Condition monitoring on Scotland’s west coast

James Fisher Mimic (JFM) has secured a contract to install its condition monitoring software on 14 CalMac Ferries which will ensure early warning of any problems to the crucially important form of transport which services the Scottish west coast islands.

Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) is the UK's largest ferry operator, which uses 50 ports and harbours across 200 miles of Scotland's west coast.  Last year the ferry company shipped around 5.6m passengers and 1.4m vehicles across its network in sailings ranging from five minutes to seven hours.

Now JFM is providing software, hardware (a mixture of hand-held and fixed Mimic condition monitoring systems), training and expert services to 14 of CalMac’s larger vessels which provide life-line services to the remote Scottish islands. These specifically designed vessels operate in some of the most difficult seas around the UK. They will use the JFM’s system to identify early patterns of failure across a wide range of on-board equipment in a bid to reduce the effect of lost services and vessel downtime.

The JFM team’s effort to secure the new contract was led by Martin Briddon, JFM business development manager who continues to be involved in helping CalMac to introduce condition monitoring into the vessels’ maintenance strategies in order to predict failures and improve asset management and reliability. Callum Jones, JFM project manager, and his team of CM and IT consultants also worked to commission the Mimic systems onboard.  ‘Close collaboration and diligent project management have been key to the successful commissioning of the project,’ says Martin.

Julie Philpott, director of asset management for CalMac Ferries, says:

‘We are delighted to be working with JFM on this important piece of work. Early identification of defects is vital to ensure a resilient fleet serving the communities of Scotland’s west coast. JFM and the Mimic software was selected as the system offering the best value for the company and we are looking forward to working with JFM to achieve the goals we have set.’

JFM’s condition monitoring software analyses asset condition, vibration data, performance and efficiency of the vessels’ systems and equipment to provide vessel owners and operators with live decision-making and early warnings relating to asset condition, performance and efficiency to ensure the vessels remain operational. The collected data is transformed into information both on board the vessel and ashore to provide an early warning of potential faults. Vibration signature data captured by the crew is uploaded and passed to JFM for deeper vibration analysis.

Continual monitoring ensures improved reliability and availability, which in turn helps to reduce the costs associated with being off-hire because of mechanical breakdown. This enables fleet companies such as CalMac to eliminate unscheduled breakdowns, reduce maintenance costs and increase operational capability.

The installation of these systems increases JFM’s presence across a diverse number of vessel types that includes military, cruise, tankers, offshore support, patrol vessels, car carriers, survey plus, now, car and passenger ferries.