Thickness Measurement for Ferries, Tankers and Cargo Ships in Karlshamn

Inspection services for ships at Karlshamn

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

Ferry berth, energy terminals and dry-cargo quays

Karlshamn has no drydock, so the work is done afloat at the berth where the ship is working cargo. At the ferry berth, the turnaround between arrival and departure gives a window for targeted measurements on vehicle decks and machinery piping, and lay-over days give more. At the energy terminals the terminal's safety rules apply in full: equipment must be suitable for hazardous zones, enclosed spaces are entered only on the ship's permit with the right gas readings, and cargo operations take priority. The dry-cargo quays are the easiest places to work, because holds, hatch covers, decks and cranes can be reached once the area is clear of cargo handling.

For dockings, the Klaipėda ferries can use ship-repair yards at the Lithuanian end of their own route, which saves a ballast passage; tankers and cargo ships dock wherever their owners have arrangements, often in Poland, Lithuania, Denmark or Germany. Readings taken during a Karlshamn call can go straight into the yard specification, and our team can travel to the yard to finish the programme.

• Ro-pax berth for the Klaipėda route — trailer-deck, ramp and stern door gauging, with machinery piping measured during turnarounds and lay-overs.
• Energy port terminals — ballast tank, void-space and deck readings on product, chemical, LPG and vegetable-oil tankers, within terminal approval.
• Dry-cargo and forest-product quays — hold, tank-top and hatch coaming gauging on general cargo and multipurpose ships.
• Container quay — ballast tank and deck work on feeders within the call window.
• Project cargo berth — crane pedestal, foundation and adjacent deck gauging, with magnetic particle testing of pedestal welds on heavy-lift ships.
• The ship's docking yard — the team mobilised to Klaipėda or another yard to complete renewal-survey gauging.

Rules for ferries, chemical tankers and gas carriers in Karlshamn

Foreign ships in Karlshamn are inspected by the Swedish Transport Agency under the Paris MoU. The Klaipėda ro-pax ships also fall under the EU inspection regime for ro-pax ships in regular service between member states, and because both ends of the route are EU ports, their voyages count in full under the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime. Tankers of different kinds follow different survey rules. Oil and chemical tankers are subject to the Enhanced Survey Programme, with gauging that grows at each renewal survey. Gas carriers built to the IGC Code are not covered by ESP but have their own class requirements for hull and cargo containment, and an LPG carrier's pressurised or refrigerated cargo tanks are not entered during a normal call.

Vegetable-oil and chemical tankers often have stainless steel or specially coated cargo tanks, and their ballast tanks, cofferdams and deck structure age like those of any other tanker. On such ships, in-port gauging is about the hull structure around the cargo system rather than the cargo tanks themselves. Ships calling at EU ports carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. Ferries and other ships that trade further north in winter keep their Finnish-Swedish ice class, and their ice belts warrant a separate section in the TM plan.

Ships trading to Karlshamn 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 Karlshamn

The sequence for a thickness measurement job at Karlshamn is short and written down, so the yard, the surveyor and the superintendent know who arranges what.

Copenhagen Airport is the main international gateway, with regional trains running along the coast through Skåne and Blekinge to Karlshamn. Ronneby Airport, a short drive east, has domestic flights. The ferry terminal, energy port and cargo quays are ISPS-controlled, and the energy terminals add their own safety induction, so the agent registers the technicians in advance and arranges passes. The team travels from India on Schengen visas, and the agent keeps us informed of berthing changes so mobilisation matches the ship's actual arrival.

• 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