Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement at Lindø Port of Odense and on Odense Fjord

Inspection services for ships at Odense

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

Dry docks, quays and berths at Lindø and Odense

At Fayard, the team works for the owner or manager inside the yard's programme. Staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates come through the yard and the superintendent, and the gauging sequence is agreed so that blasting, coating and steel work are not held up: tanks expected to need renewal are measured first, letting the yard order and cut steel while the rest of the programme continues. With the hull dry, bottom and side shell, sea chests, rudder and stern frame are reached from the dock floor or from staging, and pitting in bottom plating can be mapped properly.

Away from the docks, work is done afloat. Installation vessels and heavy-lift ships at the wind quays can be measured on deck and around crane pedestals between loading operations, keeping out of the site's lifting exclusion zones. Bulk carriers and general cargo ships at the port terminal and in the city harbour are gauged while they work cargo. Ships lying at a repair quay after leaving dock, or waiting for their slot, give longer windows for tank, deck and piping readings, and these afloat periods are often used for scrubber and ballast-water piping checks that need the systems shut down.

• Fayard dry docks — full renewal-survey gauging of shell, bottom, sea chests, cargo and ballast tanks with the ship dry.
• Fayard repair quays — afloat tank, deck and piping measurement before or after the docking, including scrubber lines.
• Lindø wind quays — deck, crane-pedestal and sea-fastening gauging with crack detection on installation and heavy-lift vessels.
• Lindø port terminal — holds and ballast tanks on bulk and breakbulk ships during cargo work.
• Odense city harbour — hold and tank gauging on coasters and smaller bulk carriers alongside in the inner port.

Retrofits, recycling and regulation at Lindø

Port state control at Lindø and in the city harbour is carried out by the Danish Maritime Authority under the Paris MoU. For ships here, though, the strongest drivers of gauging come from class and from the owner: a renewal survey falling due, a condition of class to clear, or a decision about whether to retrofit equipment or extend the ship's life. A docking at Lindø is when those decisions are taken, and the thickness data gathered in dock sets the steel renewal list that the yard then works to.

Because the repair yard also holds a place on the European List of ship recycling facilities, the end of a ship's life can be decided on the same site as her repairs. EU-flagged ships must be recycled at a listed facility, and an Inventory of Hazardous Materials is required for EU-flagged ships and for foreign ships of 500 GT or more calling at EU ports. The EU ETS (from 2024) and FuelEU Maritime (from 2025) weigh on older, less efficient tonnage, so some owners docking at Lindø are choosing between a major steel and equipment refit and a sale. A thorough gauging record from the docking, reported on the class formats, gives them the evidence to choose.

Ships trading to Odense 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 Odense

A gauging job at Odense 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.

Copenhagen Airport is the usual international arrival point for Odense, with direct intercity trains across the Great Belt to Odense station, and Billund Airport is a second option to the west. Lindø lies outside the city at Munkebo, reached by road. Fayard issues its own yard passes and safety induction, arranged by the superintendent, while the wind quays and port terminal have site access rules handled through the agent or the vessel operator. The team travels from India on Schengen visas, so yard dates should reach us as soon as the slot is fixed.

• 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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