Swiss marine power company WinGD has launched a pilot project for a new engine diagnostics solution that is claimed to greatly simplify engine maintenance for crew and fleet managers. The enhancement to WinGD’s engine monitoring and remote support platform, WinGD integrated Digital Expert (WiDE) is being trialed on a vessel managed by Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM).
The pilot installation will monitor five of the engine components crucial for reliable engine operation – cylinder liners, piston rings, exhaust valves, fuel pumps and fuel injectors – recommending condition-based maintenance intervals by using algorithms to estimate their remaining useful life.
Through WiDE’s engine diagnostics system, crew on the vessel will be provided with the possible causes to diagnose faults and prompted to add relevant maintenance tasks. The scheduling of the tasks will be calculated based on the predicted remaining useful life of the components affected.
WiDE is now installed on more than 200 vessels. A digital twin of each individual engine builds a comprehensive picture of the expected engine performance in all conditions. Anomalies are analysed to identify root causes, “dramatically” improving troubleshooting time for engine crews and highlighting optimisation potential across the vessel lifecycle.
