Pressure and Level Transmitter Applied in Ships Ballast Tank

Ballast water is essential to the safe and efficient operation of shipping, the level measurement of ballast water in wing and double bottom tanks are used for the control of ship trim, draught, and list.

Meanwhile, the ballast water poses a serious ecological, economic, and health threat. And the BWMS is designed to solve this problem. There are various types of BWMS, and all of this kind of system requires to measure in-take water flow and system pressure for the controlling. Since these instrumentations are essential, reliability and stability are an absolute must. 

Background

While the ship is on the voyage, the fuel, cargo, food, drinking water, etc. on the ship are in customized cabins. Ballast tanks are designed to accommodate ballast water for the purpose of adjusting the ship's trim, heel, draught, center of gravity, and stability. During the operation of the ship, the load and materials for living and fuel on the ship are changing which will change the original draught of the ship. The front and backload capacity changes will affect the navigation performance of the ship.

Pressure and Level Measurement

The purpose of the ship's ballast water tank level measurement is to adjust the ballast water timely according to the ship's operating conditions.

Apart from the power system piping necessary for the normal navigation of the main engine, the piping system of the ship power device also consists of the ballast water system, the bilge water system, and the water firefighting system for ensuring the safe operation of the ship.

All three systems use seawater as a medium to share one seawater main pipe. If necessary, the seawater main supply pump, firefighting pump or general service pump can be taken care of or shared with each other.

The ship's ballast water system consists of a ballast water pump, a ballast water pipeline, a ballast water tank, and a valve box. The timely and effective injection, drain off or transfer of ballast water in each ballast tank is to fulfill the purposes below:

(1) Maintain the proper displacement and draft depth of the ship to keep the vertical and horizontal balance of the hull;

(2) maintain a certain stability height of the hull;

(3) reduce the deformation of the hull and protect the hull from excessive bending moments from excessive shearing forces;

(4) reduce the vibration of the hull;

(5) Improve the airworthiness of the ship's empty space.

Certificates

Apex Sensor has a large number of customers application examples in the marine industry. Our ship use pressure and level transmitters are certified by China Classification Society CCS and DNV.GL.