Keeping social distance by moving skids
These are challenging times, but it’s good to remember that not everything is turned upside-down. A lot of our service work continues as planned, especially on a local level. That includes my recent commissioning job here in the Netherlands on a newly built reel-lay vessel. There’s a lot of our equipment on board, from Alfa Laval PureBallast 3 and PureBilge to the fuel separators, but everything was commissioned smoothly and successfully. Nonetheless, there are precautions to be taken, even in our local work.
Recently I did a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) at the Dutch company Leemberg, where the skids were assembled for two PureBallast 3 systems going to the United States. A skid-based installation is the fastest way to get a ballast water treatment system on board. My job, which Lars Brown from Alfa Laval USA coordinated for our American customer, was to do a system check before the completed skids left the site.
I was invited to the factory for the FAT, but the big challenge was getting permission to enter the Leemberg facility. The visit was scheduled for a week after the lockdown started in the Netherlands. Fortunately, we were able to make it work. The people at Leemberg put the PureBallast 3 skids in the corner of their warehouse, so that I could inspect them without getting close to any Leemberg employees.
It took a little extra consideration and a little extra moving. But sometimes the little things make all the difference.
Jerry van Toorn
International Service Engineer
MSH International Marine Service
Alfa Laval, Benelux