AMI Marine (UK) Ltd - History
“To connect and to remain connected” has been AMI Marine (UK)’s primary business objective over the last 20 years. This means the control of interfacing and then retransmission of various signals, between the main navigational equipment on the bridge of any type of vessel.
History
It really was not that long ago (20 years) when the majority of marine equipment was electro-mechanical and information read-outs were all on paper. These were frustrating days of synchros with the inevitable mechanical breakdowns, along with the corresponding delays and unbudgeted costs expected and accepted! Masters were fully in control of every aspect of their role and expected their independence to be respected.
Technology started moving apace and Printed Circuit Boards with limited software applications and digital readouts came to the market, as did AMI. Initially, there was considerable opposition to pcb’s and digital readouts – paper printouts, as with paper charts, were deemed to be more reliable and of course far more familiar. Initially, AMI experienced considerable difficulty being at the forefront of these changes, at the same time benefiting from retaining the necessary expertise to marry old systems with the new evolving technology.
One of the biggest problems owners had faced was to ensure compatibility between items of equipment, which very often meant single source supply in terms of: ‘would equipment accept and relay the existing information stream ?’ This problem had substantial, financial implications in terms of what products could be used together.
Along came AMI with a range of neutral products that permitted the input of any signal type; interfacing this signal with the desired output signal, then re-transmitting this new signal to/from the replacement equipment such as gyro, radar, Doppler, etc; the list is considerable. Immediately, the problems of competitive pricing or no availability of equipment, were largely removed, as products from almost any manufacturer could be made compatible with equipment from any other manufacturer.
AMI Today
One of the many challenging problems faced is the variety of different systems in use, on a massive range of vessels, built mainly in Europe, the Americas’ and Far East shipyards. As the drive for international compatibility of mandatory IMO requirements is implemented, marrying up with “sometimes” very “local” equipment can be extremely problematic. Interfacing can, on occasions, become more of an art than a science. Some of the greatest issues AMI tries to resolve on a regular basis is convincing owners of the substantial costs that can be involved in producing “individualised” custom made equipment, rather than retaining their current systems with the addition of a standard, off the shelf AMI retransmission and interfacing solution.
The development of AMI’s product range has been achieved through a very flexible approach to problem solving, short equipment runs, low overheads and a “can do” mentality, backed up with a comprehensive service and information exchange with customers.
And what of the future?
The ongoing need for effective and reliable solutions, coupled with competitive pricing, will remain the most important factors for AMI going forward into the future: is there going to be a real plug and play compatibility for everyone worldwide? As marine legislation has become and will continue to be more and more stringent, and with the introduction of new regulations and systems, these mandatory requirements will require a variety of interfacing and retransmission solutions. To cope with these changes, the latest marine navigation interfacing product, the KW938, now contains what was originally three different interfaces in a single, miniaturised box: this unit has been particularly helpful for S-VDR interfacing.
As equipment changes and varied requirements evolve, AMI has progressed into a stand-alone manufacturer producing a range of very successful products, including S-VDR / VDR. AMI is also about to receive Type Approval for the latest mandatory equipment, which is BNWAS (Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System), following the IMO Committee’s decision adopting the mandatory fitting of this equipment on all vessels of 150gt (keel lay base) or over.
BNWAS (Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System)
This is a completely new product to the AMI range, which has been developed in accordance with the IMO specification, is fully tested and now in production.
The touch screen system consists of a main alert panel, a remote alert panel and a watch alert panel for second and third stage alerts. Other outputs from BNWAS include a third stage active watch alarm for the general ship alarm and a fourth stage to activate the Ship Security Alert Distress System (SSAS). Under the IMO specification two options are offered, either push button or motion sensor activation.
AMI’s interfacing products have provided simple and extremely cost-effective solutions to what would otherwise have been expensive and lengthy delays for ships. The failure of mandatory equipment on vessels in various ports around the world is a probability and the following case history is a good example of a cost effective solution from AMI.
A Case History
A particular project that highlights the “can do” approach AMI Marine take to resolving expensive and time sensitive problems, was the introduction of the early SMIDS (Ship’s Movement Information Display System) to replace an EDO Doppler system which had crashed. Back in 1997, a Vela ship (‘Media Star’ – supertanker 350/400,000gt) was carrying a faulty Doppler, which was due to be replaced at the next survey. Obviously, the costs of dry-docking are substantial for very large vessels and forward planning of major and necessary works is always crucial to keep within budgets, and more importantly ensure the minimum of downtime to the ship’s schedule.
Unfortunately, the Doppler system was not going to survive until the planned survey dry-docking date. AMI Marine was contacted (Vela were already a customer for other products) to see if a fix could be found, in order to keep the vessel legal until she was due to be dry-docked. After a number of brain storming sessions, AMI Marine designers and technicians conceived an electronic-only replacement for the dying Doppler system. At that time, AMI Marine had a form of docking system under development and coupled with existing products, a prototype SMIDS was produced and fitted to the “Media Star” within 8 weeks. This system proved to be very stable and provided all the mandatory information required of the Doppler system.
SMIDS Today
Since the fitting of the prototype ten years’ ago, SMIDS has since been fully developed and refined. SMIDS uses the footprint of all available satellites (GPS and GLONASS) and is Galileo ready.
The system enhances all aspects of navigational information and provides “real time” speed-readings (as minimal as 0.01 knots), direction and position, clearly identifying, “drift”. All this data gives the Captain a range of instantaneous information, which means he can predict every aspect of the vessel’s movements. This gives total confidence over the control of the ship and all required or necessary manoeuvring, which is vital in confined and dangerous waters that are often affected by strong tidal flows and winds.
To further enhance the SMIDS system, an indispensable addition is the SMIDS PDA. This hand-held repeater can be used in various parts of the vessel including the bridge wing, deck and ship’s office and at the same time via further remotes, on a pier or on board tugs that may be required for docking manoeuvres, providing the same instantaneous readout.
Clearly SMIDS and the remote PDA can be used to best advantage when two vessels are in close proximity such as naval refuelling at sea. In this situation, when fuel lines are exchanged, a PDA can be passed over at the same time providing the Captain of the vessel being refuelled with real time information from the mother vessel.
SMIDS carries Lloyds and MED Ship’s Wheel Type Approval.
AMI Marine (UK) is a UK based company that develops and manufactures marine electronic interfacing, retransmission and bespoke navigation products, including the highly successful Voyage Data Recorder (VDR), Ship’s Movement Information Display System (SMIDS) and the new Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System (BNWAS).
AMI Marine’s worldwide network of service engineers is managed from their purpose built headquarters in Southampton.