PIPES AND P&I CLAIMS

Pipes and P&I Club Claims
 
Everyone knows about the effect of corrosion on a ship's hull, but

few people consider the effect of corrosion on piping. Pipes pose

a hidden danger, a danger that is often forgotten about.

Pipes are silent workers, conveying fluid or allowing air to enter

or to leave a space, and are the means by which many control

systems operate. They are unnoticed until pipe failure occurs and

a machine stops operating, a space floods or oil is spilled. Pipes

penetrate almost every enclosed space, as well as the shell both

above and below the waterline, and the weather deck. There is no

system on a ship that has such enormous potential to cause fire,

pollution, flooding or even total loss.he majority of ships' pipes are constructed of ferrous material,

a material that is attacked by all forms of corrosion. As a ship

ages, so does the piping system. Maintenance is not always easy,

because pipes, unlike the hull, are difficult to examine because

of their numbers and inaccessibility. It is practically impossible

to maintain them internally, where most corrosion takes place,

and at times just as difficult to maintain a pipe's external surface.

As a result, pipes can receive minimum maintenance, and pipe

failure is often the result. As an operator once remarked when

asked, "When is it necessary to replace a pipe?", "When it bursts."

The purpose of this guide is to alert ships' crews to the danger of

catastrophic loss that can result from pipe failure. Our intention is

to raise awareness of the limit of redundancy in pipe design and

the difficulties involved in the surveying of ships' piping. Pipe

failure will only be prevented by a proactive approach to

inspection, maintenance and repair.


Failed pipes cause, or contribute to, many serious claims.

• Bagged grain on a small bulk carrier was damaged after water

escaped from an air pipe running between a ballast tank and

connected to the tank top and water escaped through the crack

when the ballast tank was overfilled. The ship was 18 years

old, but nothing had ever been done to protect the pipe from

corrosion; not even a lick of paint. Cost – $120,000. Repairs to

the pipe would have cost less than $50.

• Bulk fertiliser was damaged when water escaped from aopside ballast tank via a sounding pipe that passed through

the tank into the hold below. The pipe was cracked and holed

inside the ballast tank which contained saltwater ballast and

water drained from the tank into the hold. Cost – $380,000.

Damaged sounding pipes are easily identified during

inspections and repairs are inexpensive.

• A cargo ship foundered and four crewmen lost their lives,when a seawater-cooling pipe in the engine room burst and the

engine had to be stopped. The ship was blown onto a lee shore

where it broke up on the rocks. Cost – four lives and $1m.

Corroded seawater pipes connecting directly to the shell are

often wrongly repaired with a doubler. Doublers should not

normally be used to repair shell plating.

• A product tanker was gravity ballasting into a segregated tank.The ballast line passed through a cargo tank. When ballast

stopped flowing, a corrosion hole in the line allowed oil to

escape into the sea through an open valve. Cost – $975,000.

• The main engine of a bulk carrier was seriously damaged when

alumina in the cargo hold got into its fuel tank. There was a

hole in the air pipe that passed through the cargo hold into the

tank. Cost – $850,000. The pipe had never been properly

examined during surveys.

• A diesel alternator caught fire after a low-pressure fuel oil pipe

burst and sprayed oil onto the exhaust manifold. The pipe had

been vibrating, and this movement had caused the pipe's wallto chafe and become thin. The claim cost a new alternator and

$100,000, but the fitting of a pipe support would have cost a

mere $2!