Alewijnse Marine Systems

With a long tradition in maritime technology, Alewijnse Marine Systems are an integrator who provides total solutions in the field of technical service, innovative electrical engineering and ICT in the broadest sense of the word. With more than 400 well trained employees, Alewijnse are involved with the production of over one hundred ships annually. They are based in the Netherlands - with a headquarters in Nijmegen, and other facilities in Drachten and Rotterdam.

The inland shipping department of Alewijnse Marine Systems has considerable experience with Omron, having used them for their automation equipment for over 2 years. For the landing ships this is within the Alewijnse Data Control System (DBS), and for the tankers it’s within their Tank Measuring System (TMS).

The inland shipping vessels vary in length from 86 meters up to 135 meters. Both the DBS and TMS systems are designed to operate the main components and the alarm system, including status reproduction and the correct functioning of the complete system.

All of the ships equipment contains several indicators that are monitored continuously. The data coming from these indicators is being sent to a CJ1-PLC, which has been incorporated in the controls of the wheel house. The CJ1-PLC is, through a Profibus DP-connection, in connection with a number of Smart Slice remote I/O systems. This way all of the equipment on the ship can communicate with the central PLC. All of the alarm systems which are integrated into the equipment is presented through a central IPC. In this way, pumps, the ventilation, the lights etc within the whole ship can be monitored and controlled.

The most important component of both the DBS- and TMS-systems is to display and dispatch all of the alarm systems. TMS-systems are more complex, because of the analogue indicators which the TMS gets from the different sensors. Next to that TMS watches also the load water-line of the ship.

The inland shipping department of Alewijnse is very satisfied concerning the Omron-solution. ‘’It is a very reliable system'', Dominique Megens says. He and his colleague Martijn van der Donk were responsible for choosing Omron. ‘’The compact dimension of Omron-PLC’s are a big plus. Space on a ship is very limited’’, Megens explains. ‘’Also the accuracy and resolution of the analogous inputs of the Smart Slice is a big advantage. 20.0 mA is really 20.0 mA!’’ His colleague Van der Donk endorses that. ‘’Moreover the CX-One software is simple to use and creates a low overhead. All these factors ensure a high degree of flexibility in configuration.’’

The quality of the Alewijnse software is of a high level. It is very easy to use because of the use of constructive building blocks. The power of the current solution comes through the standardization of both the hardware and software. Because of this, time is saved during the engineering phase. Moreover the use of the building blocks ensures there there is a consistency in the build of the panels. This also applies to the software.

Alewijnse is very satisfied concerning the current solution. Because of this the company can realize short run times during engineering and assembly. All of the customers’ wishes can be fulfilled. Above all it is an extremely reliable solution; a captain must at all times be able to trust the electrical installation of his vessel.