[Shipbuilder]

What did you think of Planned Maintenance? It just came in on my last couple of trips to sea, but I couldn't cope with it at all. The onboard computer kept churning out planned maintenance every day, but I was spending 8 hours a day in radio office with communication and many hours supposedly off watch trying to sort things out in the rest of the ship and expected to help entertain passengers in evening. Engineers & electrician seemed to be suffereing from equal amounts of it.

To add insult to injury, it wasn't very long before R/Os were declared "unnecessary personnel" and dispensed with altogether! Who does it now?
Bob

[surfaceblow]

On the American Ships the Chief Engineer had all of the fun games with the PMS (plan maintenance system).

The Navy vessels that I was on used a program SAM (Shipboard Automated Maintenance). All of the Chief Engineers kept a manual for SAM by their computer for when the shore side review of the maintenance was conducted. The manual was 62 pages with a Orange binding copyright 1960. My favorite line was I could not, would not, on a boat.




If you did not guess the manual for SAM was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

[K urgess]

I suppose you could call the maintenance carried out on the emergency batteries as "planned".
We got a few maintenance schedules and tech notices towards the end of my time with Marconi.
It was always handy to keep a log of meter readings to catch valve drop-off and keeping everything working with regular checks was just part of the job.
I've been living with planned maintenance ever since I came ashore. Used to be written into maintenance contracts in the computer and factory automation industry.

[Tai Pan]

Computers? the only computer I had was my god given ten fingers.!

[Bill Davies]

Originally Posted by Shipbuilder

What did you think of Planned Maintenance? It just came in on my last couple of trips to sea, but I couldn't cope with it at all. The onboard computer kept churning out planned maintenance every day, but I was spending 8 hours a day in radio office with communication and many hours supposedly off watch trying to sort things out in the rest of the ship and expected to help entertain passengers in evening. Engineers & electrician seemed to be suffereing from equal amounts of it.

To add insult to injury, it wasn't very long before R/Os were declared "unnecessary personnel" and dispensed with altogether! Who does it now?
Bob

I think we have to seperate planned maintenance from computers.
When I joined NBC late 68 they already had a well developed PMS in a ledger which did the job efficiently. Further, ISM as we call it, was well in vogue in US companies but was called General Directives. I think we were a little behind in the UK.

Bill

[R651400]

Originally Posted by Marconi Sahib

I suppose you could call the maintenance carried out on the emergency batteries as "planned"

Noted on another thread your deference to the leckie as your power source?
Without always chronologically referring to the "old days," battery power for the radio office and it's isolation from the ship's mains was and should have always remained a SOLAS requirement.

[King Ratt]

Planned maintenance led to many equipments functioning less well after PM schedules were carried out. "If it aint broke, don't fix it" springs to mind.

[K urgess]

Originally Posted by R651400

Noted on another thread your deference to the leckie as your power source?
Without always chronologically referring to the "old days," battery power for the radio office and it's isolation from the ship's mains was and should have always remained a SOLAS requirement.

Having had to "sort out" the batteries on several ships as a shore tech., it always appeared to me that a lot of ship's personnel never considered them an "essential" item when it came to survival. Also applied to some of the battery rooms I've had to take charge of on joining.

As to the deference to electricians. I was also indebted on numerous occasions to their expertise with DC Motors and the maintenance thereof. There was no substitute for an expert undercutting a commutator and returning a piece of emergency equipment to reliable operation more quickly than I could ever do it.

Kris

[R651400]

Let's not bog this down in generalities.
The batteries I refer to were the radio office power source completely isolated from the DC ship's mains which was only there as a charging supply.

[K urgess]

What other batteries would I be referring to?

[trucker]

who took care of the batteries ,when radio officer,s became surplus to requirement,s.

[surfaceblow]

One ship the Second Mate took over the job of taking the readings and logged zero for the battery volts for a month before handing in the log sheets. When I went to see what was wrong I found out that the battery charger was turned off. After wards the batteries were maintained by the Engine Department. On some ships that had an RO the batteries were maintained by the Engine Department because the RO could not get the overs off of the batteries.
The other batteries that were maintained were for the starting of the Life Boats, Emergency Diesel and the UPS's for the Control Systems.

[R651400]

Originally Posted by Marconi Sahib

As to the deference to electricians. I was also indebted on numerous occasions to their expertise with DC Motors and the maintenance thereof. There was no substitute for an expert undercutting a commutator and returning a piece of emergency equipment to reliable operation more quickly than I could ever do it.

Never had or seen a DC motor in the radio room so not sure where you're coming from?
Rotary transformer, rotary convertor? Affirmative, all directly connected to the ships main battery supply to provide power for the radio room.

[K urgess]

Originally Posted by R651400

Never had or seen a DC motor in the radio room so not sure where you're coming from?
Rotary transformer, rotary convertor? Affirmative, all directly connected to the ships main battery supply to provide power for the radio room.

And what is a rotary converter/transformer?
It's a DC motor driving an AC generator/alternator.
I never said he helped with a DC motor but that his expertise with DC motors was of great benefit for the speedy return of equipment with a commutator to full and efficient operation.
Naturally once I'd picked an Electrician's brains and had the necessary tools I could do the job myself.
One of the joys of my period as junior was sending morse with no sidetone and the Oceanspan DC motor driven Alternator (Rotary transformer!) wailing like a banshee a foot away from my right ear.
Thank heavens for 365B clunkers.

[andysk]

Originally Posted by Marconi Sahib

.... One of the joys of my period as junior was sending morse with no sidetone and the Oceanspan DC motor driven Alternator (Rotary transformer!) wailing like a banshee a foot away from my right ear.....

Wasn't that the only way to do it ? That was certainly the case for my first few years at sea ...

[K urgess]

Originally Posted by andysk

Wasn't that the only way to do it ? That was certainly the case for my first few years at sea ...

I can't remember the first time I got sidetone, Andy.
It was usually supplied to the Rx from the Tx and if I've got it right you only got it if you had R/T on the Tx. Oceanspan VI didn't have it so the first time I heard it must've been when I got an Oceanspan VII.

Cheers
Kris

[R651400]

We've moved a wee bit from the nub of the thread since my query on your comment that the leckie was responsible for your power source. By this I now understand you mean the ship's mains.
Oceanspan installations before AC mains ships were two DC/DC rotary transformers 24V/110v to 600V DC.
DC/AC (slip rings) were rotary converters.
No sidetone but receivers were desensitised via the back contacts of the morse key when transmitting.
Back to planned maintenance whatever that is!

[andysk]

Planned maintenance : a small pocket sized notebook with all the valve meter readings in it, it was in a slightly different format on every ship, but worth it's weight in gold. And a monthly look at and record of the state of the brushes in all the motors/alternators etc.

I seem to remember the deck guys had a huge multi ring binder (a Kalamazoo ?) that contained details of the inspections of the blocks and shackles etc etc etc for the derricks, and other bits & pieces.

[Moulder]

I always paid my electricity bill direct to the 3rd Eng. - after all it was their 'gennies' that provided the power.

[Pat Thompson]

Greetings,

The PMS Book in RFAs used to be known as the Chief Officer's Colouring Book

[K urgess]

Aah! But it was the Lekkie who knew where all the breakers were.
I once had to start my own gennies because the substitute Lekkie, the Fourth Engineer, was having problems with exciters.
I used to enjoy visits to the engine room for various bits of electronic kit fixing but 8 o'clock on Christmas morning was a bit too much.

[trucker]

christmas morning,isn,t life s--t.didn,t even have time to put on my new white shoe ,s

[K urgess]

Since we were just out of drydock and tied up at a repair berth with everyone on daywork and taking a couple of days off we didn't need that sort of hassle after a VERY good Christmas Eve.
By then the white shoes had been in the bin for at least 8 years.