Cyprus-based Intership Navigation awarded 40 ships with VDR upgrade to Danelec Marine.
Danelec’s global reputation as a leader in VDR technology, worldwide servicing availability, and experience were key factors in the decision made by Intership. Furthermore, the local support provided by Raytec Marine, long-term service partner in Cyprus of Danelec products, convinced Intership that Danelec was the logical choice of provider for the challenging upgrade project. Raytec Marine, established in Cyprus, Limassol in 2004 is dealing with navigation and communication equipment. Raytec is the in-house service partner of Intership and represents leading manufacturers of bridge equipment.
Internship and the Hartmann Group
Intership is a member of the Hartmann Group headquartered in Leer, Germany. Principally a shipowning company, Intership has also expanded into third-party management for a small number of European, American and Asian owners. Intership’s owned fleet consists of different series of vessels; Bulkcarriers from 5.500 mt dwt to 180.000 mt dwt, General Cargo vessels from 8000 mt dwt to 27.000 mt dwt, Container Feeders of 700 TEU as well as Handy, MR, and LR1 tankers, totaling in excess of 80 vessels.
Reason for Upgrade
Costly repairs and obsolete technology of existing VDRs installed over 10 years ago were the main reasons for Intership’s decision to upgrade existing equipment to new Danelec high-tech DM100 VDRs and S-VDRs.
"Our choice of vendor was based on an analysis showing that Danelec equipment gave us the lowest cost of ownership and maximum return of investment. The elements forming part of the TCO analysis were price, product quality (highest MTBF in the industry), ease of installation, SWAP technology, remote diagnostics feature, extensive global service network, lifetime support, and maintenance cost savings."
— Mr. Dieter Rohdenburg, CEO Intership representative
Upgrade Highlights
- Inclusion of conversion kits ensuring minimal installation time from another brand to a Danelec VDR
- Remote data access solution to the VDR allowing download of VDR data in case of an incident, remote Pre-APT as well as remote configuration updates saving significant service costs
- Cloud-based dashboard solution allowing monitoring of equipment connected to the VDR
- State of art product design including SWAP technology allowing instant hardware exchange onboard
- Extensive global service network with 600+ factory trained and certified technicians
Smooth and Efficient Conversion kits
Danelec offers a range of conversion kits to facilitate the replacement of more than 30 different models of VDRs and Simplified VDRs (S-VDRs), including all major existing and legacy brands. Retrofit kits can reduce the installation times by 25-50 percent, saving time and money and minimizing downtime for the ship.
Unique SWAP technology
With the unique Danelec SWAP technology, all system software and configuration, as well as programming data, is automatically saved on a hot-swappable memory card that can easily be removed from the old unit and inserted into the new one. Relocating the repair from ship to shore saves hours of time in re-installing software and reprogramming the unit.
DanelecConnect – using VDR as remote gateway
Part of the Danelec retrofit package is a Vessel Remote Server module that enables the Safety Insighs web-based remote management service. As a value-added interface, Danelec Collect allows selective transmission of data from the VDR to an onshore office. Remote management provides a range of benefits such as
- Remote monitoring and service
- Ship’s performance optimization
"Danelec’s Remote Management Tool enables instant access to the vessel’s VDR from a PC on shore for transfer and replay of recorded VDR data in case of an incident or emergency situation. For the mandatory VDR Annual Performance Tests (APT), access can be provided to a VDR service technician in order to perform diagnostics of the system or to run a pre-APT test while the vessel is at sea, speeding up the actual APT when the ship arrives in port."
— Mr. Dieter Rohdenburg, CEO Intership representative
Project execution and timeline
Raytec, the local Danelec service partner in charge of the retrofits, has worked with Danelec products since 2014, and is, therefore, most familiar with the Danlec product quality, reliability, and simplicity in regards to installation and setup. As of February 2019, 12 Intership vessels have been retrofitted with Danelec VDR and S-VDR solutions. The new rollout of additional 40 ships is proceeding according to the Intership timeframe with Raytec technicians installation planned during other service/maintenance jobs. Installations include challenging locations such as Angola, Madagascar, and Oman. The entire upgrade project is to be completed before 31st December 2020.
