Altus and SKM develop technology to modernize the naval fleet of the Brazilian Navy

The collaboration between Altus and SKM continues to bring in good results for both companies. In October 2015, the two institutions established a partnership that encourages research, development and engineering desired for the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) of Supervision and Control of Propulsion, Auxiliary Machines, Damages and Power Management (PMS) of the power system on military ships.

Despite being a younger company, SKM’s history is similar to Altus’. The company is a great supporter of the development of national products and technologies that benefit the companies to which they offer their services. Nicolau Sebastião, the company`s Planning, Control and New Business director, says that “the most important thing about this whole process is when you unite national development with national technology”. In other words, Altus offers the technology, while SKM implements it.

In addition to operating in the offshore market and in the general industry of Rio de Janeiro state, the company`s main customer is the Brazilian Navy, which also uses equipment from France, England, Germany and the United States on their ships. Together with Altus, SKM seeks to unify this huge variety of technologies with products developed in the Brazilian territory, ensuring the technological independence from other countries.

Ongoing projects

After more than a year working on the project for the Predictive Maintenance System for the CBO Guanabara Ship, a vessel that belongs to the Offshore Brazilian Company, the company concluded its development. The system`s purpose is to monitor the vibration, temperature and rotation of the ship`s gearbox bearings, which enables the collection of data to do an on-line evaluation of the stage at which the gearbox detrition is.

The solution analyzes this data and makes it possible to determine the detrition and possible problems of the gearbox, in addition to determining the stage of “life” of the bearings, as well as misalignment or unbalance. Thus, by analyzing the data history, it is possible to predict the probability of a failure and plan a scheduled maintenance shutdown. It is a promising work that has been arousing interest and promoting CBO`s new maintenance strategy, based on efficiency, agility and safety.

The solution is a variation on the ship`s current Telesupervision and Predictive Maintenance System. This system consists of a BluePlant SCADA/HMI supervision software from Altus, which aggregates information from the electronic units responsible for monitoring vibration and temperature variables. After being collected and processed on board, the data is sent to the CBO Operational Base on land to be analyzed by the maintenance team, enabling an assessment of the status (lifespan) of the monitored machines.

The Telesupervision System aims to meet the objectives of predictive maintenance, including the following goals: increase the availability time and the degree of reliability of machinery and equipment, prevent the increase in damage and increase the safety of onboard personnel responsible for conducting the vessel .

New technologies onboard Brazilian Navy ships

The Brazilian Navy embraced the idea of finding technology produced in Brazil with domestic engineering intelligence. Over the past few years, the institution, together with SKM, has been working on the modernization of the control of a series of systems, using technology from Altus products.

For Patrol Ships, for example, the company developed a panel of navigation, signaling and ceremonial lights, which enabled the communication of the ship`s navigation conditions, such as “navigating”, “at anchor” and “man overboard”.

The panel contains a Nexto Series PLC and a 10 HMI, which are controlled through Modbus RTU communication protocol. The solution uses a group of smart cards developed by SKM to activate and adjust the intensity of the navigation, signaling and ceremonial lamps, making the combinations standardized by the IRPCS regulation (International Regulation for Preventing Collisions at Sea).

Credibility with the Brazilian Navy

The change in the Navy`s guidelines and paradigms is another important milestone in the path of Altus and SKM. In the past, the Brazilian Navy itself developed the supervision and control systems for its ships. Over the years, SKM became a partner to the Navy in the development of projects, being responsible for carrying out the actions of updating, repairing and modernizing the ships.

The future of the partnership

In the coming years, the partnership between Altus and SKM will continue to promote the domestic technological development and to serve the Navy and the Integrated Control and Monitoring System of the Brazilian Military Ships Plant (IPMS). Just like in Altus, the company also seeks to reduce dependence on foreign technologies within the next years and promote the development of employment opportunities in the country.