Shipping industries bear many responsibilities on their shoulders. From cargo to fishing, sailors have to be on board for quite a while to fulfill their jobs. Maritime employees in the past did not have it easy. They had several responsibilities before sailing to ensure a safe voyage such as weather forecasting, map drawing and navigation in a traditional way. However, marine suppliers today have taken care of all the needs of the shipping industrial undertakings. What are the basic must-haves of shipping? Do the onboard workers require PPEs? How do they transport vessels safely? All these questions are answered in this blog.
Let’s start. Shall we?
Basic freight shipping appliances that every ship is equipped with:
Just like tools and other impediments used across heavy scale industries, shipping and sea work also need equipment to carry out their operations. Let us look at them category-wise.
Navigation :
As cliche as it might sound, navigation is the core principle of cargo. There has to be not a single but many tools for precise navigation for sailors. Some of the most common ones are mentioned here.
a.) Compass is an indicator that will always point towards north. There are two sorts of compasses- gyro and magnetic. Gyro compass does not depend upon the magnetic field to signal the directions. It is based on two principles- Inertia and the property of keeping at 90 degrees to the applied couple force. That is how it avoids deflection by the earth’s magnetic field.
The other type of compass adopts the principle of the magnetic field. A magnetic compass is a convenient tool that utilizes the earth’s magnetism to point towards the north.
b) Echosounder- is another age-old technology that employs the principle of SONAR. In other words, this equipment calculates the water depth through the transmission of sound waves to and fro the surface below the seawater. It is used to detect any icebergs, boulders or an approaching ship to avoid any kind of hindrance from them.
The sound reception system is an apparatus that receives nearby sounds from objects, obstructions and so on and notifies the officer of the same.
c) Radars- are devices that help in the detection of objects in the vicinity. This helps in avoidance of any kind of accident on waters. Radar is basically an antenna that emits frequencies to anticipate nearby objects or ships. It also helps to measure the distance from a closeby land. Radars can be conventional or automatic. The ARPA is an automatic device that works on the same principle as that of radar but with an in-built system to automatically adjust the speed and direction of a ship.
d) Speed log - It is used especially by naval vessels to keep track of distance covered by the cargo. It does so by calculating the speed of the ship from the start point itself. Enggpro is an online supply chain platform that has enlisted leading marine manufacturers in India. Check out enggpro and explore the top marine exporters dealing with speed and distance log devices.
We have listed the most frequent navigator appliances used onshore.
But the question now comes to How are these freight shipments fastened on the sea?
Majority of the goods that are transported across the globe is through the heavy vessels and containers fastened on the naval seals. Specialized equipment is used to lift the containers and secure them. Also, It is of utmost importance that these get stabilized by cargo securing equipment so as to reduce the loss from falling of goods and spillage of raw materials.
1.) Twistlocks- these are used either to secure two vessels arranged one on top of the other or to lock the base container to the ship platform. They are of two types- semi automatic twistlocks and base twistlock. Base locks are the ones that clasp the lowermost vessel to the deck. And twist locks fasten two containers vertically.
2.) Hanging stacker- a type of fastener that clasps the containers all around and neutralizes the shearing force of the moving goods.
3.) Midlocks- help to fasten two side-by-side placed naval vessels to each other in a horizontal direction.
4.) Lashing bars- they secure the shipment diagonally from the top of one side to the bottom of the deck on the other side. These are tightened by turnbuckles.
Heavy goods as well as the cargo which is to be shipped in mass cannot be lifted manually. It requires lifting equipment to hold and grasp them as well as to place these safely on the deck.
There are a plethora of lifting machinery like crane clamshells as well as orange peel grab buckets. The leading manufacturers who make these are registered with enggpro, which is amongst the top online supply chain managing platforms. Not just that, a variety of other handling devices are used such as front loaders, derricks, hoppers and several others. The dry, solid commodities are handled in bulk through the help of cranes or floating cranes. The lifting tool is attached to the crane through hooks.
Marine industry is one of the vast platforms that undertakes a zillion operations on a daily basis. Beyond that, it is a preferred and a safe way of shipping freight globally. To maintain this reputation of being a safe transport medium, it has to be kept updated with the latest navigation installations and trustworthy handling equipment. Check out the reputable marine manufacturers in India via enggpro.
