What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Damage was reported to the steering gear hydraulic ram foundation brackets connecting the ram to the structure of the vessel. The foundation bracket casting failed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What went wrong? Investigation and findings<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
• The failed brackets were of a cast bronze design and by nature of the material were unable to withstand shock loads;<\/li>\n
• It can be seen in the above photograph that the casting had a design flaw whereby there is no radius where the main body meets the flat mounting plate. The clearly shown sharp corner results in a stress raiser where the crack has occurred;<\/li>\n
• Subsequent inspections across the fleet revealed several vessels with damaged brackets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  What lessons were learnt? And what were the actions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

  \n
  • Thorough inspection of steering gear ram foundation brackets for cracks is recommended;<\/li>\n
  • Appropriate modification of vessel planned maintenance system to include this visual inspection;<\/li>\n
  • Our member noted that later vessels have brackets fabricated using welded steel plate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Failure of welding (search “weld failed” on the IMCA website<\/a>) yields a number of incidents, but failure of an actual casting is less commonplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What happened? Damage was reported to the steering gear hydraulic ram foundation brackets connecting the ram to the structure of the vessel. The foundation bracket casting failed. What went wrong? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","tags":[],"safety_event_tag":[97,109],"class_list":["post-12266","safety-events","type-safety-events","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n