Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement for Ro-Ro, Car Carriers and LNG Ships in Zeebrugge

Inspection services for ships at Zeebrugge

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

Finding the gauging window at Zeebrugge's terminals

Zeebrugge is primarily a cargo and energy port rather than a docking port, so most gauging here is done afloat and planned around the call. At the car terminals the useful time is the gap between discharge and loading, when car decks are empty and the ship can provide lighting and safe access to the hoistable decks. Ro-ro berths in the inner and outer port suit main-deck and tank-top work on lay days. For full renewal survey programmes, the readings taken here can be passed to the yard where the ship will dock, so hull gauging in Zeebrugge often serves as preparation for that docking.

The Fluxys LNG terminal and the gas-handling berths sit inside strict safety zones; any work aboard is planned with the terminal and the ship's own permit system, and is usually limited to ballast tanks, deck structure, voids and the engine room. Container ships calling at the outer port offer short windows for scrubber piping and deck checks. The Pierre Vandamme lock gives access to the inner port, where some ships lie for longer and where pre-purchase and condition gauging is most practical, because the vessel is idle and cargo work does not compete for access.

• Car terminals in the inner and outer port — car-deck, hoistable-deck and ramp gauging with crack detection at supports, between discharge and loading.
• Ro-ro berths for UK and Irish services — main-deck, tank-top and stern-ramp structure readings during lay days or weekend lay-overs.
• Fluxys LNG terminal — ballast tank, deck and void-space gauging on LNG carriers within terminal permits; containment systems left for dry dock.
• Outer port container terminal — scrubber discharge pipework and deck plating measured while the container ship works cargo.
• Inner port berths behind the Pierre Vandamme lock — longer pre-purchase, on-hire and condition gauging on ships lying alongside.
• Anchorages in Belgian waters off Zeebrugge — short launch-borne jobs on vessels at anchor, when the sea state allows boarding.

Rules, fuels and a changing car trade at Zeebrugge

Ships in Zeebrugge are subject to Paris MoU port state control and operate within the North Sea emission control area for sulphur, with its 0.10% fuel limit. Many car carriers and ro-ro ships on these routes meet it with scrubbers, while a growing number of new vehicle carriers are LNG dual-fuel, and LNG bunkering is available in the port. On the scrubber ships, wash-water and overboard lines remain a common source of wall-loss findings, and the agent can confirm the local rules on open-loop discharge before the system is run near the coast.

The car trade itself is changing the fleet. Electric vehicles are heavier and carry a different fire risk, and the industry has been revisiting deck strength, fire protection and lashing on vehicle carriers as a result. Owners of older PCTCs that will keep trading on European routes, and now accounting for emissions under the EU ETS (from 2024) and FuelEU Maritime (from 2025), want to know whether deck plating, stiffeners and ramps have the margins the next decade of cargo will demand. Thickness data from a Zeebrugge call is a practical starting point for that assessment.

Ships trading to Zeebrugge 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 Zeebrugge

A gauging job at Zeebrugge 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.

Brussels Airport is the usual arrival point, with road and rail links to Bruges and on to the port. Access to the car, ro-ro and LNG terminals is controlled under ISPS, and the LNG terminal also applies its own induction, so the agent submits the team's details well ahead of the call. Technicians coming from India travel on Schengen visas, and because Zeebrugge windows are short, we tie mobilisation to a confirmed lay day or call rather than an estimate, and keep the agent informed of the team's travel.

• 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.

In this section