iView Advanced HMI keeps Royal Navy ships at sea.

The Royal Navy Duke Class Type 23 Frigates form the backbone of the Royal Navy’s surface flotilla and reliable on-board equipment ion allsystems is critical if they are to be ready for deployment at short notice and extended sea-duty.

During a recent refit of HMS Argyll, there was a requirement to either replaced or upgraded on-board refrigerated stores suites, and the Royal Navy selected specialist marine refrigeration company Ernest West & Beynon to carry out the upgrades.

Primary operator interface

Part of the requirement was for a primary operator interface to be fitted to the main control panel where ships staff and maintenance engineers control and set the refrigeration systems. The control panel is mounted in the ship remotely to the refrigeration machinery skid. The IMO iView Advanced HMI was selected as the most appropriate for the task at hand-specifically the IV07M model.

The primary operator interface had to allow commands and settings to be entered locally, and then be passed through to the control system PLC’s, via a Modbus datalink. The IMO iView was selected as it fitted the requirement perfectly, and the first of this new equipment installation is now in service.

Menu-driven touch screen

Once integrated into the on-board systems, operator controls, plant data, historical alarms, current alarm messages and help information were programmed into ten pages accessible from the iView’s touch screen customer programmed menu page.

If a problem develops, the iView display flashes red warnings on the screen allowing the ship’s non-electrical staff to accurately report the fault condition. In case the display is not being observed, the iView also send a text message detailing the fault to the selected crew members, and trained technicians can then interrogate the iView data pages for information on the fault condition.

Replaces useless Christmas tree

According to the Technical Manager of Ernest West & Beynon “this is a considerable technical advancement from the previous set-up which was virtually a Christmas tree of lights with no supporting data.”

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