Crisis in service centres? Not for Wilhelmsen Ships Service. 

Immersion suits - Ready for Service

Recently, concern has been expressed in the shipping press that the service industry will not be able to process all the immersion suits when they become due for their IMO specified service in 2009. So many suits were purchased when the new regulations were published in 2006, that many suppliers believe that service centres will be overwhelmed by the demand.

Wilhelmsen Ships Service does not share this view. By next year they will have more than 80 service stations around the world, and sufficient servicing capacity to deal with the demand. They are currently expanding their service network globally, with a special focus on Asia, Middle East and South America.

Suit-drying facilities

As part of the servicing process, IMO stipulate that all suits should be leak-tested with compressed air under water, or using a soapy water spray. This can cause long delays in some centres while they wait for the suits to dry. However, Wilhelmsen Ships Service is installing rapid-drying equipment in all their centres which enables them to process up to 50 suits per day in their major stations. This means that they can process complete sets of suits for most vessels in less than 8 hours, and have these back on board before they are due to leave port.

Multi-brand philosophy

In 2006 Wilhelmsen Ships Service delivered 70 000 Unitor-branded immersion suits to the merchant marine industry. Their centres were initially set up to service only these Unitor-branded suits. However, their service organisation has now diversified, and is able to service all the most popular brands.

Replace or Repair?

Anyone who has tried to use a faulty immersion suit will confirm that even small leaks in the suit can lead to a very uncomfortable experience! If a suit can be quickly and easily repaired, Wilhelmsen Ships Service repairs these during the service, if it is a Unitor-branded suit. However, if the repair is more complicated, and is likely to take some time, it is more cost-effective to replace the suit.

Wilhelmsen Ships Service’s fleet agreement customers have the option of keeping a complete set of serviced suits in certain ports on an “exchange and replace” basis. This is clearly the best solution for customers who have a large number of suits to process, and whose ships have a very short stay in port. They simply drop off the old suits, and we replace them with newly serviced ones.

Wilhelmsen Ships Service also sells portable test equipment, for vessel operators who would like to service their suits on board. This is obviously more time-consuming than using onshore test procedures. It requires specially trained crew to carry out the service, and they are not authorised to carry out any repairs to damaged suits. The most efficient solution is to have the testing done on shore at a designated safety service station.