Servicing ten ship's onboard box coolers was plain sailing

Cooling the engines
The customer, which has offices at ports around the world, acquired the box coolers for a ship at Aberdeen, Scotland which are used to cool the engines plus other ancillary equipment.
Box coolers comprise U-tube bundles fitted in the sea chest on the sides of a vessel, which saves space in the engine room. Cooling sea water enters through an inlet grid in the sea chest and flows over the U-tube bundle, cooling the water inside the tubes, before flowing through an outlet grid and back into the sea. They are particularly suited to small and medium-sized offshore vessels.

After operating for more than ten years, the coolers had become less efficient due to marine growth fouling the tube bundle and restricting seawater being unable to pass fully around the tubes, resulting in a higher engine water temperature.

Bespoke equipment
As the box coolers were originally Kelvion bespoke equipment and we had a UK location at Atherstone, our service team could be quickly called into action to thoroughly clean and repaint the units. Time was of the essence as the customer needed the work to be completed in 10-12 days as, the longer a ship is in dry dock, the more it costs.

Impressed with the results, the customer’s UK Technical Superintendent said: “The Kelvion team fully understood our need for speed and worked non-stop to return the equipment to active duty and operate in the reliable and cost-effective way we have come to expect.”

The result
Teamwork and commitment to customer service ensured that the service was completed on schedule.