MAIN HEAD
Lyngsøe and ship automation

Lyngsøe Marine, of Denmark is moving ahead with services to supply the entire automation systems for a vessel, covering all aspects of loading, including remote control of valves and monitoring, integrating directly with the loading computer. 

Recent contracts were with BP tankers newbuild in South Korea, fitting integrated alarm and control systems, with Transpetrol of Belgium and Lavrin Maritime of Sweden. A number of Maersk tankers use the system exclusively. 

The tools allow certain ship engine to be controlled from the ship bridge or office. 

Having a single central system for monitoring the ship ought to be simpler and easier than having several different operating systems around the ship, for example in the engine room.  

For example, all of the cargo operations can be controlled from the ship's office, including turning all the necessary pumps on and off and controlling the power. The controls can be linked directly to the ship's loading computer, which can make continual calculations as to the stability of the vessel, or if the seafarer is doing something illegal under shipping law. 

Lyngsøe works closely together with Kockumation, which produces loading computers, as well as the LoadStar loading computer developed by Maersk. 

The alarms can also be in a central place on the ship, enabling seafarers to see at a glance if anything is going wrong. 

Several pump and engine manufacturers are improving the level of electronic control of their equipment, notably MAN B+W with its electronic engines, profiled elsewhere in this issue. Having electronic controls makes it much easier for the system to be controlled from the ship's bridge.

The service Lyngsøe provides is to build the system, install it on the ship and provide all necessary training.