OPC 1 below building at Eastern Shipbuilding
In a improvement first reported by Forbes on Thursday, scheduled supply of the primary Offshore Patrol Cutter, Argus, from Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City, Fla., could also be affected by the invention of issues with the principle drive shafts for the primary two vessels in this system.
We requested Eastern Shipbuilding Group for some clarification of the story.
“We received shafting for OPC Hulls 1 and 2 that were not in compliance with the NAVSEA requirements called for in the OPC vessel specifications. These two sets of shafting were delivered to our facility with signed and stamped certificates of approval from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), the U.S. Government-mandated certification authority for the OPC Program, certifying that they were in physical compliance with the ABS approved design artifacts,” stated Eastern Shipbuilding Group President Joey D’Isernia. “We later discovered that both shipsets of shafting were non-compliant due to having out of tolerance physical dimensions. This issue was discovered during shaft installation on OPC Hull 1. The Coast Guard, Rolls-Royce [the supplier of the shafts] , and ABS were made aware of the problem immediately and they each had on-site representatives overseeing shaft installation. We are working closely with ABS, Rolls-Royce, and the USCG to resolve this issue as soon as possible. In the meantime, we are coordinating with the Coast Guard to advance post launch production and test activities to be completed prior to launch, in order to mitigate delivery schedule impacts and launch the ship at an even greater level of completion.”
Rolls-Royce is the provider of the principle drive shaft for hulls 1-15. The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is the U.S. Government-mandated certification authority for each design and building of the OPC Program together with certification of subcontractor provided gear (e.g., the Rolls-Royce provided shafting).
According to Eastern, the issue was found throughout shaft set up on OPC 1 when the Port Line shaft spigot function was unable to bodily align with its related make-up coupling. At the time, this was believed to be an remoted incident.
“It took months to discover the full scale of the problem as the OPC 1 shafts had to be removed from the ship and measured at a third-party shafting measuring facility,” says ESG. “There was no way of foreseeing this issue since the non-conformances were not visible to the naked eye and all shaft measurements were witnessed and certified by ABS before the shafting was delivered to the shipyard.”
The Coast Guard, Rolls-Royce, and ABS had been conscious of the issue instantly since they every had on-site representatives overseeing shaft set up, says ESG including that, the Coast Guard, Rolls Royce, and ABS had been additionally concerned within the subsequent troubleshooting, measurements, and inspections.
ESG says that as prime contractor, it’s answerable for choosing the seller, integrating shafting into the general ship design, materials receipt and storage (shafting), and completion of set up and testing.
“We selected Rolls-Royce, the premier propulsion shafting supplier for U.S. military vessels, to design and supply NAVSEA/contract specification compliant shafts,” says the corporate. “ABS was answerable for approving the shaft design, witnessing inspections and measurements, and certifying the shaft’s bodily conformance to the NAVSEA/contract design.’
What are the choices going ahead for the principle drive shafts for OPCs 1 and a pair of?
ESG says it’s working a number of, parallel paths with Rolls-Royce, the USCG, and ABS to establish appropriate means to attain compliant shafting deliveries for future hulls and to execute appropriate repairs to the at present delivered shafting to NAVSEA and OEM requirements.
“Our primary goal is to receive a full shipset of acceptable shafting as expeditiously as possible since this threatens to delay OPC deliveries to the USCG,” says ESG.
In the meantime, the shipbuilder is coordinating with the USCG to advance different manufacturing and check actions to mitigate ship supply schedule impacts and launch the ship at a fair higher stage of completion (i.e., lowering the quantity of labor that have to be accomplished between launch and ship supply to the USCG).
