Dry dock in Ferrol.

At the request of our Japanese partner, Nakakita Seisakousho. We recently sent three engineers to Ferrol, to a dry-dock. The M.T. “Lalla Fatma N’Souma” was dry-docking for intermediate survey. In co-ordination with the 3 engineers from Japan, the job was to remove, disassemble, inspect, and renovate the Nakakita valves. The valves concerned were steam control and steam safety valves. These valves were crucial to his LNG carrier as the valves were part of the steam system that supplied steam to the main steam turbine propulsion system. After our initial kick off meeting, the valves were identified, disassembled and inspected. The valves were of various different sizes from 100mm up to 450mm. The larger valves had to be disassembled with the assistance of the engine room crane or chain block system.

After disassembly it was found that many of the valves were in perfect working order and just required minimum maintenance. This maintenance consisted of replacing seals, membranes and gaskets and the faces lapped. However there were a few valves where the studs had corroded or threads were broken. These parts we either machined or completely reproduced. These parts we machined or produced using the ships lathe. Prior to the assembly of the valves, each valve was closely inspected by the owner’s inspectors and then were re-assembled and torqued down to the recommended torque values. Once completed the vessel headed out of dry-dock for sea trials where everything passed accordingly. We were in attendance at Ferrol for 12 days and carried out the maintenance of over 60 valves.