Ultrasonic Thickness Gauging in Emden for Vehicle Carriers, Ro-Ro Ships and Ship Repair

Inspection services for ships at Emden

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

Yard, terminals and quays for gauging in Emden

Emder Werft und Dock is the port's repair and conversion yard. It works behind the sea lock on ships that fit through it, and it has recently gained the permits to recycle ships as well. For a vessel docked at the yard or lying at its quays, gauging follows the thickness measurement plan and the attending surveyor's close-up list, using the yard's staging and services, and plates found below the renewal limit are marked so the steel crew can start without waiting for the report. The yard also fabricates for industry and wind energy, so steelwork capacity is at hand when renewal turns out to be extensive.

Outside the yard, gauging is done afloat. At the car terminals the window is the gap between discharge and loading, when decks are clear and the crew can lower hoistable decks and open ramps. Breakbulk and wind component quays give longer stays, especially when heavy-lift ships land towers and blades one unit at a time. Ships waiting in the inner harbour between employments offer the longest windows, because the protected, non-tidal water makes them easy to reach and safe to work on in most weather.

• Emder Werft und Dock — in-dock and alongside gauging for renewal and docking surveys, with steel renewal marked for the yard.
• Car terminals in the inner harbour — car-deck, ramp and hoistable-deck gauging on vehicle carriers between discharge and loading.
• Wind component and breakbulk quays — tween-deck, tank-top and hatch cover readings on heavy-lift and multipurpose ships.
• Bulk and forest product berths — hold and tank-top measurement after discharge.
• Outer harbour berths — short jobs on island ferries and offshore service craft between trips.
• Waiting berths behind the sea lock — longer condition, pre-purchase and pre-sale surveys on idle ships.

Port state control, ship recycling and EU rules in Emden

Emden falls under the Paris MoU, with port state control carried out by BG Verkehr's Ship Safety Division. Vehicle carriers have drawn closer attention since fires aboard several of them in recent years, and inspectors and owners alike now look harder at fire protection, ventilation and the condition of car decks and their supports. Thin deck plating under years of wheel loads and condensation is not the most visible defect on a PCTC, but it becomes one of the most consequential when a ship is asked to carry heavier electric vehicles on the same decks.

Ship recycling has given Emden a new link to EU rules. Under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, every ship calling at an EU port must carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials, and EU-flagged ships may only be recycled at facilities on the European List of ship recycling facilities. With the Emden yard now licensed by German authorities to recycle ships, owners weighing a final sale against another survey cycle have a German option to consider, and gauging gives them the steel figures behind either decision. EU ETS, in force for shipping since 2024, and FuelEU Maritime, since 2025, add emissions obligations that weigh most on older tonnage.

Ships trading to Emden are inside a sulphur emission control area, where fuel must not exceed 0.10% sulphur unless an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) is fitted. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it are among the fastest-corroding parts of a modern ship, so they belong in the gauging scope at every docking and, on open-loop systems, between dockings.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Emden

A gauging job at Emden 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.

Bremen Airport is the usual arrival point, with Hamburg and Amsterdam Schiphol as alternatives for long-haul flights; Emden is linked to Bremen by rail and motorway. The ship's agent arranges ISPS access to the car terminals and quays, while the yard issues its own passes and induction for dockings. Technicians coming from India travel on Schengen visas, so dates for a docking should be sent as soon as the slot is fixed, and terminal calls as soon as the vessel's rotation is known.

• 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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