Chinese Yards and welding

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TxMarEng
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Chinese Yards and welding

Post by TxMarEng »

Seems there are a lot of quality issues with Chinese yards, a recent owner wanted to build to GL class but Chinese yard would not accept. Following delivery owner changed class to GL and many deficient welds were discovered. There have also been numerous problems with engines delivered from China as well. Owners have to take some responsibility such as in the case of the Double Lifters, what rational thinking would lead someone to order a new ship from a yard that hasn't even been built yet? We have only begun to see the problems. They are sure to pop up in bulkers and LNG vessels from these "instant" shipyards.
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Madzng
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Re: Chinese Yards and welding

Post by Madzng »

Where was the Class society and company representative during construction? Class has to witness key stages of construction, and anything coming out of a Chinese yard should be supervised by the owners. The yards will try and get away with as much as they could if not watched closely. The Korean yards were very similar when they first started.

As a country gets better, another is just starting. Vietnam is just beginning in the ship repair and ship building industry. I have more concerns about them, than the Chinese yards.

I've sailed on some Chinese (1999) built 34 000 DWT product tankers, and whilst there was some issues there was never any problems similar to what you describe.

The quality of the materials used in ER piping was not of the highest quality. After only a couple years in service most of the sea water service piping had been replaced or patched. The "stainless steel" on the IG plant was not of a high quality and was starting to rust, within a couple of years.
It was virtually impossible to get to some areas of the ER tanktop, due to the planning and layout of the piping.
The quality of a lot of the fittings (valves etc...) was poor and caused the most of the day to day problems.
The response from the yard to guarantee claims was also disappointing, but the company simply did everything themselves and negotiated the compensation at the guarantee closing meeting.
Any pipes close together were inslulated as one, making tracing systems or repairs almost impossible without removing all the lagging.
The material quality and tolerances of the nuts and bolts was terrible, and all spares were replaced once the vessel got back to Europe.
Head height was a common problem in some areas of the ship.

There was never any specific problems with any of the engines, which could be put down to the yard, makers men built the engines and were present for the sea trials.

You always get what you pay for, and there will be good and bad yards in every location.
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TxMarEng
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Inhumanity to Engines

Post by TxMarEng »

Quoted a well respected Brit Engineer in my title. Seems Wartsila has cranked out another license to a Chinese engine builder. I think Madzng missed my point regarding the welding. The yard refused to build to GL class because they knew they couldn't meet their demanding quality and aligned with a less demanding class society. They do exist you know. China is both irrational and irresponsible in it's quest to become the world's biggest shipbuilder. I fully realize what went on in Korea in their early stages as a close friend was the longest reigning ABS surveyor in Korea at that time and had to put up with lousy work and threats from the yards. Chian has gone beyond that, taking orders for vessels for a yard that doesn't yet exist, performing shoddy work regardless of who is inspecting, slipping spies into Korean yards. We all know that delivery date is delivery date and the principals in the office, nowadays simply limited partnership shareholders don't care, take delivery and live with it. I myself am very disappointed that both MAN and Wartsila have granted so many licenses without any assurances of quality control in the myriad of suppliers that are also involved with these builders from orings to piston rings. I am now in the last stages of a 40 year career both at sea and ashore I can assure you that soon you will see some sad situations at sea due to this inept workmanship. I do find it amusing however, that there exists those who are so inept in this industry to negotiate a newbuild contract with an non existent yard. Like my father always said "Keep the lights burning when on watch and don't try to dazzle the Chief with any fancy footwork"!
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Sébastien
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Re: Chinese Yards and welding

Post by Sébastien »

I don't know if the quality of Chinese steel is still at the bottom of the barrel, but in 2002 I took an advanced machining course and we would use Canadian steel to do our marked projects and cheap Chinese steel for our refresher training and trials. I once got a piece of Chinese steel that I could not cut with a parting tool, after many attempts of my tool bit breaking off I asked the instructor what I was doing wrong. After inspecting my setup the instructor told me that everything was fine and that I should be able to cut the piece off without any trouble. After another few unsuccessful attempts the instructor tried himself a few times and the tool bit kept breaking off and then: blang! Something shot out between our faces and landed several feet behind us on the shop floor, it was a ball bearing! The steel had been manufactured with a furnace temperature too low to fully melt the higher carbon content items. All that being said, China will be a force to be reckoned with when they start producing good quality steel and bring their quality control up to satisfactory standards.
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