Inside Scania’s floating classroom

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Press Release / February 9, 2015

Scania application engineers ensure the company’s marine and industrial engines are perfectly married to the equipment of customers. Training days that put these professionals into real-life situations ensure that their skills are up-to-date and of maximum benefit.

It’s a grey autumn day in Sweden’s capital city Stockholm and in the coastal suburb of Dalarö the temperature is sitting just above zero.

But down in the engine room of the Swedish Sea Rescue Society vessel Björn Christer things are toasty and warm. A group of six application engineers are gathered around the boat’s twin Scania engines and Max Lindqvist, Lead Engineer, Marine & Power Generation Engines, is explaining the latest methods for assessing engine performance.

“The boat belongs to the Swedish sea rescue society and they have been very kind to let us undertake training on their boat,” Lindqvist explains later during a break. “It’s equipped with two Scania V8s with 1,000 horsepower each that makes it run at 35-36 knots. So it’s quite a fast vessel.”

Outstanding engineers

A total of 20 application engineers from Scania distributor across the globe are involved in this week’s training, with participants coming from as far afield as Australia, Burma, Lebanon and Brazil.

Lindqvist explains the idea behind the training is educate outstanding engineers from each market so that they can return and share their knowledge with colleagues, thus inspiring excellence. Scania aims to stage such events every two years or so, so that the most up-to-date knowledge makes its way to the marketplace.

The training component on-board the Björn Christer involves assessing how efficiently the power generated by the vessel’s Scania engines is being transferred to the water jets. “We conduct physical tests, run the engine, log data and draw diagrams showing how the engine interacts with the propulsion system,” says Lindqvist.

After examining the engine physically, the group heads up to the main deck where a laptop computer has been connected to the vessel’s engine control unit (ECU). The computer has been fitted with SDP3, Scania’s PC -based diagnostics application software for engines. As the group huddles around the screen, a long list of engine performance variables is continually updated. The boat’s pilot then increases engine speed in 100 rpm increments, allowing the engineers to assess performance at various stages of load.

After examining the data Lindqvist is able to declare that the engine is operating efficiently. “It’s pretty good,” he says. “It’s a close match to the rated speed. We’ve also looked at acceleration performance and the engine revved up really well.”

“Makes it more real”

As well as training on-board the Björn Christer, engineers will today attend lectures on the features of engine control units and on marine power definition. Tomorrow the work will focus on topics including power generation and vibration assessment.

Dean Rippon, an application engineer from the UK, who took part in the training says getting out in the field has real advantages for learning.

“It makes it more real life,” he says. “As well as sitting in the classroom talking about the theory side, we also do the practical side, actually being on the boat and experiencing it first hand.”

Rippon says there are multiple benefits to attending such training. “You’ve got to keep up with the latest technologies and talking to people from other markets also helps. It brings great value to the customer they can see that we’re experienced in what we do we can approach it more professionally.”

Michael De Clercq, an application engineer from Belgium, says it’s crucial that customers get the best installation possible for their engine. “It’s important because we are selling a premium product,” he says. “We need to make sure that the engine is installed in a good vessel, and that the installation performs to the same high standard as the engine itself.”

For more information: http://newsroom.scania.com/en-group/2015/02/09/inside-scanias-floating-classroom/