Blog 85 - A Treatise on Expansion Bellows - My Old, Personal Pet Peeve about Requisitions

MV Anna - 'Marine Musings 23"

Engine Room and Smoke:

V Type Engine

At departure Sheerness, after the Main Engine was started, I saw all the Engine Room staff wearing Ear Protectors - perfectly understandable - and also masks to cover the nose - ????.

I was told that there would be too much of exhaust gas in the Engine Room with the Main Engine running, even though one of the four Engine Room Blowers was on ‘Exhaust’ mode. I was also told that exhaust gas was leaking from the exhaust pipe banks into which each cylinder was exhausting into.

I said “Show me”.

After we were in the open sea, with the Main Engine running at full, we opened four of the covers (like on the silver painted casing in the image 1 below) to see what was happening. It was hot and we were like cats on a hot tin roof. But unless we pinpoint the location of the leakage of exhaust gas, which can be done only with the Main Engine running, we would not be able to move forward in eliminating the problem.

There were 2 sets of exhaust pipes, leading to 2 turbochargers. There were probably 18 or 19 expansion bellows on the exhaust pipes' arrangement.

The leaks were from several ruptured expansion bellows, from which there was steady leakage / flow of exhaust gas.

Courtesy dieselduck.net

A 16 cylinder V type Engine (Image 1)

Image 1 as referred to in text

Courtesy Youtube

Shows an 18 cylinder engine - ours was 16 cylindered

Image 2 as referred to in text

Along with the Second Engineer, I went through the Maintenance Records. There had been regular changes of cracked exhaust pipe expansion bellows from the time Barber’s took over. Chief Engineer’s report on taking over from the Japanese also indicated they had been plagued with the same problem.

We had more than 12 of these bellows as spare, an unusual excess for this spare part.

The Second Engineer and I started from scratch. I went back to the knowledge I had gained in Sisco - “When there is a recurring problem, go back to first principles.”

I asked the Second how many bellows he had changed by himself after he joined this ship - he said ‘two’, I asked him to think back and tell me, in detail, every stage of the work that he had done when changing the damaged bellows. He gave me a full run down of the procedure he followed.

Courtesy indiamart

Note the stainless steel sleeve in the interior

and the corrugated bellows on the outside.

The free, unwelded end of the sleeve is clearly visible, which allows for longitudinal expansion.

Note both flanges are the same size, same number of bolt holes.

Note the flat strips welded to each flange. This is to prevent abnormal static flexing when in storage. They are removed once the bellows are fitted in place.

I asked him to recollect how the bellow was placed, as it could be turned around 180 degrees and still be a perfect fit. He explained that the direction was the same as the one they had removed.

Many Engineers fit back items exactly as they found it when opened. Because of this, a recurring problem gets carried over and, sometimes, is never resolved.

These Expansion Bellows are a marvelous testimony to a near-genius invention that revolutionised engineering and piping systems. Pipes expand not only outwards but also longitudinally, when carrying hot liquids or hot gases. During construction, if no allowance space is given to the pipe line to expand, it will rupture pretty soon at its weakest point, possibly a welded seam. These kinds of Expansion Bellows take up mainly longitudinal expansion. Using the Coefficient of Expansion, different bellows are made to suit different metals. The design of the bellow is where it gets into the realm of inventive genius. Only catch, it has to be installed correctly or it becomes counter productive. Expansion Joints are installed for liquids at normal temperatures, the design being different from Expansion Bellows.

In this case, the bellows were made of stainless steel, with a higher percentage of nickel.

(On later ships, I was glad to find that the number of bolt holes on the two flanges were different, with PCD - Pitch Circle Diameter - for the bolt holes also being different, which eliminated the possibility of wrong fitment).

We went from there to a spare bellow, where I explained to him that the gas flow has to be only one way. I showed him how the interior circular stainless steel sleeve was welded at one end and free / open at the other. The bellows must be fitted so that the gas flow is from the welded side to the free side of the sleeve.

If fitted the other way, exhaust gas will find its way through the gap in the stainless steel sleeve and fill the gap between the sleeve and the corrugated / concertinaed bellow. The frequent pulsations in the pressure of the exhaust gas will cause this accumulated gas to flex the bellows at the pressure of every stroke of the engine and soon the bellows will rupture.

The material of the concertinaed, corrugated bellow is very thin and is meant to gently expand or contract in accordance with rise or fall of gas temperature. It is not meant to take up the pressure fluctuations of the exhaust gas.

We were now sure that the damaged bellows were wrongly fitted, direction wise.

In order to prevent wrong fitting of future ones, we drew a large diagram of the exhaust pipes, naming them A and B banks. Then we numbered each bellow in the line as A1, A2 ….. B1, B2 etc., all the while using the Instruction Manual as reference.

Courtesy FEV Group

Note the two Turbochargers at top left, each run by one exhaust bank

Gas flow has to be towards the Turbochargers, so the placement of the bellows has to match the flow of exhaust gases. We were certain that a number of them had been wrongly fitted.

As each bellow renewal could take as many as six hours or more (depending on the frozen bolts), we tackled the first one at the next port, took it out, found it facing the wrong way, changed it to a new one, allowing the gas to flow correctly.

At the same time, in that first port, two others of the engine staff were set the task of easing up each bolt of the others that were going to be changed as time permitted. There were 24 bolts and nuts at each end, 48 per bellow, which was the main time consumer. One by one, the bolt was removed, anti seize compound applied and fitted back. It was a difficult task, especially the bolts underneath, with the work space extremely restricted. With some ingenuity, we fabricated tools to make it easier to reach the bottom 1/3rd of the bolts.

This way, we could change two more bellows in the next port and three in the following port. The seventh was changed in the next port.

All leakages stopped.

The masks came off as there was no more exhaust gas in the Engine Room air.

Two weeks time taken.

The blackened areas of the Main Engine, other machinery and also bulkheads were washed and painted.

By the time we reached Singapore, the Engine Room had transformed itself from a gloomy, dark dungeon to a bright looking machinery space, especially with Bathi Saab changing tube lights and cleaning all the shade casings.

My ‘No Holds Barred’ Tussle with the Vessel Superintendent

My philosophy for shipboard work was simple. Plan and work everyone hard during the initial stages of the tenure and you will find that the work pressure reduces within three months, making the rest of the tenure easy and pleasant, with plenty of time for all to go ashore, at times given off to relax and watch movies. It makes for a more motivated staff, who will do what needs to be done with alacrity.

But as in any narrative, there is always a stumbling block, a villain. So was the case here.

Within a week of my being on board, the Second Engineer - his name was Matthew - and I had brainstormed and formulated a plan for where we wanted to be six months hence. As always, I included all the Engineers in the explanation of my thought processes, providing them a training ground for progress. All this used to be done during tea time sessions, with a white board to amplify my preliminary planning.

We took into consideration the condition of each machinery that required an overhaul or a bearing change or a mechanical seal renewal, giving a priority rating to each job.

We took into consideration the scheduled maintenance of machinery and gave it a priority rating.

We looked at the Classification Surveys that were due and planned for them.

Some of the jobs could be put into all three categories, some in two and some in one category.

A large chart - old chart from the Bridge - was drawn up and colour coded - Matthew’s idea - and kept updated.

Next step was to see what spares we had on board, in our inventory, for the machinery that we wanted to work on.

We checked to see what requisitions were pending. A few were.

That led us to what we needed to requisition, which I prepared.

Stores were at a bare minimum, so requisitions were made.

Each requisition had a succinct comment about the purpose of the requisition, why it was needed, what was planned and such details.

All requisitions were sent out before we left European ports.

A letter accompanied the requisition, outlining the overall condition and the rectification plan. Without blaming my predecessors - they were under the constraints of spares and stores not being supplied - I wrote out my inspection report, giving details of deteriorating conditions.

The Second and I had spent innumerable hours in this venture.

The telex message received from the Hong Kong Office a few days later was that all had been sanctioned 100% and were being ordered for delivery at Singapore, including the old, pending requisitions (which had been pending for more than 6 months).

We reached Singapore.

The Stores and Spares came on board. Many of us from the Engine staff were involved in receiving and checking them, as we expected a large quantity.

We were surprised to see the meagre quantities supplied. Whatever was on the Delivery Note was received citing all requisition numbers, but when comparing with our copy of the Requisitions, most items had not been received, the rest reduced in quantity.

In Stores, for example, nuts and bolts of a particular size and material that we had asked for, the bolts had been cancelled and we received 10% of the quantity of nuts requisitioned.

In Spares, where a Pump shaft with nut and sleeve thrust bearings were asked, we received the shaft nut but not the shaft or the bearings.

It was as if a lawn mower and a scythe had been used to indiscriminately cut through the requisitions, even after giving explanations in each requisition as to why we needed the parts, what is planned.

The laughable part was -

What will we do with nuts without the bolts?

What will we do with only the nut of a pump shaft, where we needed to renew an overworn shaft?

I am citing only two examples of a series of such indiscriminate follies.

I was angry with the Ship Chandler. I showed him my requisition against what he was supplying, as far as Stores were concerned. He said “ Chief, my orders were to supply only these. If I had received your full requisition, I would have supplied each and every item, as I have them all in stock. Moreover, I would have made more money”.

And he showed me a copy of the sanctioned requisitions - most cancelled, rest only about 10%. I took away his copy and kept it with me for the fight ahead.

To promise a 100% supply as per telex, only to order 10% of stores and practically nil of spares? I never did like to be taken for a ride.

Between the voyage from Singapore to Hong Kong, I spent most of my time making fresh requisitions for each piece of machinery.

For Spares, Barber’s requisitions had columns where the ship had to fill in

The Requisition number, as per a code used by the entire fleet

The name of machinery (example “Main Sea Water Pump”),

Maker’s name and address (example Heishin Industries, 54, Yamafuchi-cho, Nihan-ku, Kyoto 456789, Phone number and telex number to be given)

Type of Pump (example “2N 60/180 DV”),

Serial number (example HN 4356-32)

Etc.

I sat and made fresh requisitions for all Spares and Stores once again.

The only difference was I only filled in the Header, gave a Requisition number, filled in the details as above, and left the name of the part and the quantity required totally blank, with a terse comment at the bottom “Supply whatever you want”.

There were about 22 requisitions in all, made with blank spaces.

Before arrival Hong Kong, I handed over my mail to the Captain and all the ship’s mail went into a sealed envelope.

In Hong Kong, the Superintendent did not board the vessel. Instead, the GM at that time, Mr. Mehta, boarded and spent almost the entire stay with us, making a thorough inspection.

When going around the Engine Room, he complimented the Second Engineer on a very well kept Engine Room, it being quite a change from his last visit 5 months ago.

I had spoken to a reticent Second Engineer Matthew before and purposely pushed him into the limelight (in order to be noticed for promotion), whereon he elaborated on what we had done, how we stopped the Exhaust Gas leakages and also casually showed him the large work chart made. As discussed with Matthew, no mention was made of requisitions, except that they were pending.

(In my own way, I was also preparing Matthew for his promotion).

All went well and we sailed out of Hong Kong for Japan.

I had told the Captain (Jaggi) to expect an Inmarsat call within two days.

The third day there was a call from the Superintendent asking for me. This is more or less what transpired.

Super : Chief, your requisitions are empty.

Chief (me) : The necessary details are there. Supply what you want.

Super : How can I supply when I do not know what is the item required or its quantity?

Chief : But you already know from my earlier requisitions all the items and quantities I needed of which we received less than 10%.

Super : But most of them were cancelled. So, you have to make fresh requisitions if you want spares or stores.

Chief : The Second and I spent more than 12 hours a day for 7 days, planning our maintenance, checking our inventories, going through each manual's drawings and made comprehensive requisitions and sent them to you from Europe. You replied that 100% of the items will be supplied in Singapore. Only 10% was supplied. And you want me to put in another useless 100 hours to make fresh requisitions to cover the unreceived items, so that you can slash it through once again? We are not idiots to waste our time making requisitions again and again. I am also not going to beg you to supply the spares and stores needed. If you want to slash it, slash the empty requisition and enjoy yourself. Meanwhile, I am stopping all maintenance work. My month end Maintenance Report will only contain one sentence “No work done as the Superintendent has not supplied spares or stores”. The maintenance has been poor on this ship because of your slashing of urgently needed parts. Others may have done so, but I will not take this lying down.

Super : (Furious, starts shouting into the phone, which is on ‘speaker mode’ on our side)

Mr. Mehta, seeing an agitated Superintendent from his cubicle - here I am visualising - comes to the Super and asks him “What is wrong?” - which we could hear at our end.

Super : Sir, the Anna Chief Engineer is not listening to me and threatens that he does not want to do any work any more.

Mr Mehta : Give me the phone. Mr. Ranganathan, what is this? Why are you fighting and threatening the Super?

Chief (me) : Mr. Mehta, if you are willing to listen, I am willing to talk. If not, I’ll not say anything. (I was prepared to hand in my resignation the same day, but only after taking them head on)..

Mr M : I‘m willing to listen, go ahead.

Me : (Quickly filling him with all details, the inspections, the (almost) poor condition of machinery, the planning, the requisitions, the assurance of a 100% supply, how we have had pending requisitions for important spares for over 8 months, how our requisitions were slashed by the Super and, finally, how we were supplied only 10% of what we asked for. How much of effort and man hours had gone into the making of each requisition, only to be slashed)

Mr M : Let me check and call you back tomorrow.

Next day

Mr M : I am sorry that this happened. We should have kept a check.

I had seen your plans for improving the ship and ER, which I admired.

We will ensure supply of the rest of the items of your old requisitions in Japan, with any remnants at first port US.

Go ahead with your plans.

End of that particular incident, except to say that my future requisitions were dealt with promptly.

===== Blog 86, "Marine Musings 23" Continues =====