Report on Machinery Failures and Alarms in M0 Ships : In the light of ship's age

After almost two decades since the advent of the first one, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (NK) has in its Registry more than 1,000 ships characterized by "M0" notation as those having unattended machinery space. NK has always been studying the statistics about failures and alarms on machinery and equipments in M0 ships with a view to evaluating their reliability. Certain outcomes from the studies were introduced in the previous issues of this Bulletin. This paper will present the updated statistics including those from M0 ships of the latest generation, and point out the problems to be solved in pursuit of safer and more reliable operation of M0 ships. Three major issues pointed out are: (1) effective measures to cope with low grade fuel oil, (2) improvement in the sensing techniques and monitoring systems for main diesel engines, and (3) enhancement of functions and reliability of automatic devices and equipments expected to be free from malfunctions including so-called ghosts.