SHIPMATES - Ship Repair to Maintain Transport which is Environmentally Sustainable
Overview
Background & policy context:
There are 400 repair yards in Europe, mostly SMEs, working at more than a purely local level. This was established in a database development exercise as part of the Fourth Framework Programme's SYRIOS project.
The EU ship repair industry sector maintains around 40 000 ocean-going ships (around 45% of the world's total) which trade in EU waters. Of these, 50% are docked annually (the typical interval between dockings is 30 months, but some types, for example ferries, are docked annually). The industry employs over 40 000 people directly. In addition, the consistent use of sub-contractors results in a further 40 000 jobs. The EU also has a significant marine supply chain, providing the equipment and spare parts for the ships, and an additional 40 000 jobs at least can be attributed to the companies in this supply chain.
It was estimated that the development of new methods of work would allow the stakeholders to reduce manufacturing costs by 30-40% and work lead-times by 25% in the areas covered by the project. Furthermore, research activities would develop new tools, potentially leading to in an increase of productivity by 5% and a repair cost reduction by 3-6%. In all cases it was expected that material costs could be reduced by 10%.
Objectives:
The SHIPMATES project aimed to promote breakthrough research and technological developments to achieve improved product quality and performance based on cost-effective and environmentally friendly production systems on a life-cycle basis. Research tries to reduce manufacturing costs and production lead times.
The operational goal of the SHIPMATES project was to produce a framework and prototype tools to assist stakeholders in the ship repair and conversion industry in achieving the main objective of the project.
An additional goal was the increase by 25% of clean maintenance, dismantling and recycling of vessels as provided by the partners.
The consortium achieved the operational goal through the development of new methods for working in a safer, more environmentally friendly and competitive manner. This will be coupled with the delivery of the research and development results to the industry and stakeholders in a way that assists and encourages them to take practical advantage of what has been developed.
Methodology:
The activities of the project intended to provide a clear understanding of best practice in the sector, and to map and simulate the range of repair and conversion yard activities, with the exception of the painting and coating range of activities, covered in the separate but related SHIP-RECOAT proposal. Then, three groups of activities ran simultaneously:
- trying to improve the steel cutting and joining processes relevant to repair yards;
- improving the processes of repair and replacement of cabling and pipe work;
- establishing a controlled process for converting/retrofitting ships to make their operation more environmentally friendly.
The result of these three groups of activities was used for devising ways in which ship breaking can be carried out in Europe in a safe, environmentally friendly and economically efficient way.
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