Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement for Feeders, Tankers and Forest Product Ships in Gävle

Inspection services for ships at Gävle

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

Gauging at Gävle's container terminal, Granudden and the energy port

All gauging in Gävle is done afloat, because there is no drydock here for seagoing ships. At the container terminal, the team works around crane operations: hatch covers and coamings are gauged when the covers are on the quay or between moves, scrubber wash-water and overboard lines are measured with the system stopped, and selected ballast tanks are entered if the crew can prepare them during the call. At Granudden, holds are gauged as they come free in the loading plan, and tank tops and side frames are recorded before cargo covers them.

The energy port has its own safety rules, and any work on a tanker there is agreed with the terminal and governed by the ship's permit-to-work system, usually limited to ballast tanks, voids and deck structure outside hazardous zones. Ships waiting in the bay for a berth can be boarded by launch for short deck scopes in good weather, arranged by the agent. Full renewal survey programmes are completed at the docking yard the owner selects, and readings taken in Gävle travel with the ship as the steel estimate and the starting point for the surveyor's close-up plan.

• Yilport Gävle container terminal — hatch covers, coamings, scrubber piping and selected ballast tanks on feeders within the berth window.
• Granudden — hold, tank-top and side-frame gauging on forest product carriers while timber, pulp or paper is loaded.
• Energy port — ballast tank, void and deck readings on tankers during discharge, within terminal approval.
• General cargo quays — hold and ballast tank measurements on short-sea ships serving local industry.
• Anchorage in Gävle Bay — short deck and air-pipe scopes by launch on ships waiting for a berth, weather permitting.

Winter navigation and inspection rules at Gävle

Port state control in Gävle is carried out under the Paris MoU by the Swedish Transport Agency. Winter brings a separate set of rules: when ice forms in the Bothnian Sea, the Swedish Maritime Administration announces traffic restrictions for ports such as Gävle, setting a minimum Finnish-Swedish ice class and a minimum size for ships that will receive icebreaker assistance. A feeder or tanker that wants to keep its Gävle calls through a hard winter needs the right ice class on its certificate and a hull that still meets the strengthening the class was built to, which is why ice-belt condition matters commercially as well as for safety.

Container lines running feeders to Gävle are under pressure to cut emissions on short-sea legs, with the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime now applying on voyages within Europe, and the feeder fleet on these routes mixes scrubber-fitted ships with newer dual-fuel tonnage. On the scrubber ships, the wash-water lines and overboard connections are the parts most likely to show rapid wall loss. Forest product carriers have a different priority: shippers of paper and pulp want dry, clean holds and weathertight hatch covers, because water damage to this cargo is expensive, so hatch cover plating, coamings and drainage arrangements deserve attention on ships in this trade.

Ships trading to Gävle 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 Gävle

A gauging job at Gävle 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 usually lands at Stockholm Arlanda, which lies north of Stockholm and has rail connections north to Gävle, so the onward trip can be made by train or road without passing through the capital. Sweden is a Schengen state, and technicians travel from India on Schengen visas applied for as soon as the call or loading date is reasonably firm. The container terminal, Granudden and the energy port are ISPS-controlled, so the ship's agent arranges access in advance and confirms any terminal induction.

• 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.

Related