Ultrasonic Thickness Gauging for Ships at Bandırma, Southern Marmara

Inspection services for ships at Bandırma

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Where gauging happens at Bandırma

At the commercial quays, work is done alongside after discharge. Holds are measured once the crew has swept and washed them and the area has been certified for entry, concentrating on tank tops, lower hold frames and brackets, hopper plating, hatch coamings and the plating beneath the grab-working zone. On general cargo ships and coasters the sequence is similar, with extra attention to tween-deck structure. The terminal's permit and access system governs entry, and the agent supplies passes in advance. Work is planned around the loading programme so the holds go back to the ship on time.

Ro-ro ships and ferries can be gauged during scheduled layovers on their berths, covering ramps, car decks and ballast tanks, though the windows are shorter. At the bay anchorage the agent can arrange launches for ships waiting for berths, which suits deck, hatch cover and ballast tank readings. The port does not offer a drydock for large ships, so those needing a dry hull normally go to Tuzla, to the Yalova yards or to a yard elsewhere on the Marmara, with Bandırma readings sent ahead to shape the steel estimate.

• Commercial quays — hold frames, tank tops, hopper plating and coamings on bulk carriers and general cargo ships after discharge
• Boron and fertiliser berths — hold and deck gauging on ships working abrasive and corrosive cargoes, with coating condition noted
• Ro-ro and ferry berths — ramps, car decks and ballast tanks gauged during scheduled layovers
• Bay anchorage — deck, hatch cover and ballast tank gauging on ships awaiting a berth, reached by launch
• General cargo and coaster berths — tween-deck and hold structure on regional trade ships
• Docking elsewhere on the Marmara — readings carried to a yard's steel estimate

Port state control and industrial trade context

Ships calling at Bandırma are inspected under the Black Sea MoU and Mediterranean MoU regimes Turkey participates in, with the harbour master's office and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure acting for the state. Bulk carriers and general cargo ships in the industrial trades attract attention for hold condition and hatch covers, and structural findings can lead the inspecting officer to ask for gauging records. Class societies, including Türk Loydu alongside the larger international ones, expect measured thickness for plates the surveyor considers suspect during renewal surveys.

Commercially, the port's cargoes come from agriculture and chemical industry rather than from containers, and the owners who work them range from Turkish bulk fleets to small regional operators. Boron and fertiliser charterers sometimes want evidence that holds are in sound condition before loading, and sale and purchase deals in Handysize tonnage are common, so pre-purchase gauging has a regular place here. Ships that go on to EU ports must also carry a current Inventory of Hazardous Materials and report under the EU's carbon rules for those voyages.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Bandırma meet it with an exhaust gas cleaning system rather than compliant fuel. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it corrode quickly in service, especially on open-loop systems, and are worth adding to the gauging scope.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Bandırma

A gauging job at Bandırma runs the same way whatever the ship type. The sequence below is what the superintendent, the attending surveyor and the yard can expect from us.

The team flies into Istanbul and travels to Bandırma by road across the Osmangazi Bridge and through Bursa, or by sea connection from Istanbul where timetables suit. The ship's agent arranges port passes, launches to the bay anchorage and the terminal's permit and gas-free requirements, and receives crew lists, certificates and equipment details in advance. Indian passport holders need a Turkish visa, so we start the application when the call is nominated and keep the validity period wide enough to absorb a changed berth.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

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