Mimic saves 250,000 labour hours

With 12 main propulsion alternator engines, a national cruise liner found the fixed, period maintenance of its plate heat exchangers was labour-intensive and costly.
Too much maintenance carried out on operational and clean heat exchangers can lead to leaking seals and increasing bilge water levels after rebuilding.
The cruise liner wanted a solution that would provide actionable insights into the health and performance of its heat plate exchangers, whilst avoiding unnecessary maintenance.

Solution

James Fisher Mimic’s condition monitoring technology was installed onboard to record heat exchanger operation (in and out) temperatures and pressures.
Threshold values are set against Mimic’s calculated exceptions which are used to trigger maintenance.
By monitoring the correct operational effectiveness indicators and intervening only when required, excessive use of spares, creation of leaks and unscheduled breakdowns were mitigated.

Results

In the first two years of installing Mimic, the condition monitoring system had saved the cruise liner over 250,000 labour hours across 11 ships.

Mimic successfully reduced excessive maintenance of the cruise liner’s plate heat exchanges, increasing uptime and improving reliability.
In partnership with Lloyds Register, the cruise line company wanted to move to condition based maintenance to maximise the contribution of each asset over its lifetime.