Ship Thickness Measurement at Gemlik, Bursa's Gulf Port

Inspection services for ships at Gemlik

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

Where a ship can be gauged at Gemlik

At the vehicle terminals, access to a car carrier depends on the loading programme. Between vehicle movements, decks are cleared enough for readings on ramps, hoistable and fixed car decks, their supports and the adjacent side shell, while ballast tanks and cofferdams are entered from deck once certified. The team works deck by deck as the chief officer releases space, and does not block the ramps. At the container terminal the programme is similar to other box ships: ballast tanks, hatch covers, coamings and deck during cargo work, with items needing the ship empty held for a docking.

At the bulk and general cargo berths, holds are measured after discharge. Ships at the gulf anchorage can be boarded by launch arranged through the agent for deck, hatch and ballast tank gauging. There is no drydock for larger ships at Gemlik, so a ship needing a dry hull normally moves to Tuzla or the Yalova yards across the Marmara, and readings taken here go forward into the yard's steel estimate. The plan is laid out by compartment, so the yard planner can see at once which areas the readings flag.

• Vehicle terminal berths — ramps, car decks, supports and ballast tanks on pure car and truck carriers between loading phases
• Container terminal — ballast tanks, hatch covers, coamings and deck on container ships during scheduled calls
• Fertiliser and chemical berths — holds, deck and ballast tanks on ships working corrosive cargoes
• General cargo and bulk quays — hold frames, tank tops and coamings after discharge
• Gemlik gulf anchorage — deck and ballast tank gauging on ships awaiting berths, reached by launch through the agent
• Docking elsewhere on the Marmara — readings forwarded to a yard's steel estimate

Port state control, vetting and automotive supply chains

Ships at Gemlik are inspected under the Black Sea MoU and Mediterranean MoU regimes that Turkey belongs to, with the harbour master and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure acting for the state. Vehicle carriers are high-sided ships with large ballast capacity, and structural findings on ramps, ramp hinges and ballast tank plating can show up in deficiency records. Car manufacturers' logistics departments and their charterers tend to vet carriers closely, so owners keep thickness records up to date to show that the structure is sound.

Gemlik's trade is tied to the supply chains of the Bursa industrial region, which in turn depend on European markets. Vehicle carriers heading from here to EU ports must carry a valid Inventory of Hazardous Materials and report under the EU's carbon rules, and technical managers use measured thickness data to support those records and to plan dockings. Turkish yards in the Marmara can take a car carrier for a docking, but the ship's schedule is tight, so decisions about steel need to be made quickly once readings are in.

Wherever a ship is outside a sulphur emission control area, the global 0.50% sulphur cap applies, and many of the ships calling at Gemlik 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 Gemlik

A gauging job at Gemlik 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, usually Sabiha Gökçen Airport, and reaches Gemlik by road across the Osmangazi Bridge, with Bursa's airport an alternative for some domestic connections. The ship's agent arranges terminal passes, launches for the gulf anchorage and the ISPS formalities at the vehicle and container berths, and receives crew lists, certificates and equipment details beforehand. Indian technicians need a Turkish visa, so we begin the application once the call is nominated and keep the validity period flexible.

• 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