Shanghai: Following considerable demand from shipyards across Asia, leading classification society DNV is preparing a sample Coating Technical File (CTF) as a guideline for shipbuilders to follow in the wake of the IMO-stipulated New Performance Standard for Protective Coatings (PSPC) on Water Ballast Tanks (WBT) adopted on December 8, 2006.
As part of the new IMO-mandated Performance Standard for Protective Coatings every yard now has to develop a CTF, to include the specification of the coating system, procedures for inspection and repair of this system during construction as well as in-service maintenance. Furthermore, the CTF must contain results from records of the yard’s coating work, a coating log issued by a coating inspector and a verified inspection report. This CTF must be kept onboard ship during operation and be updated by the owner throughout its operating life.
The shipbuilding industry is worried about this additional manpower to complete this paperwork, DNV has understood while conducting a tour across the yards in East Asia to help facilitate the process and create awareness of this new IMO standard.
Confusion surrounds just how much detail is needed in the file. A VLCC, for instance, has more than one million dry film thickness coating measurements, according to industry sources. Thus, DNV’s sample CTF will serve to outline as a minimum how much detail the yards will have to give in their CTFs.
Coating experts from DNV headquarters gave a 90 minute presentation to the Hong Kong Shipowners’ Association today – their sixth so far in Greater China this January. Following presentations to all the major yards in Korea, DNV has presented its coatings seminar in Dalian, Shanghai, Guangzhou before today’s event in Hong Kong. Taipei, Kaohsiung and Japan are all scheduled in the coming seven days.
Commenting on what have been the shipyards main concerns with the new IMO coating rules, Sille Grjotheim, a senior engineer at DNV, said: “Shipbuilders have two main concerns with the new rules: increasing manhours and the subsequent logistics/facilities challenges these new regulations may bring into focus.”
DNV, with its vast experience in coatings based on our COAT notation in use for close to a decade, is in the best position to facilitate the implementation of the new IMO coating standard.