When UK Dredging needed to get a health check carried out on their system inverter drives in their trailing suction hopper dredger, the Orca, they came to MIT.
As an official UK Danfoss Drives service partner and a marine industry specialist, we conducted a technical audit and service on the variable speed drives on the vessel using the Danfoss Site Assessment Tool.

Following the visit, a condition report identified that some of the components within the drives that were controlling their propulsion, pumps and cooling lines were at an age where there was a critical risk of drive failure and, in some cases, were over five years past the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule.
As a result, MIT created a recommended preventative maintenance plan which included a complete list of capacitors, fans and measuring boards that needed replacement to ensure the continued performance of the Vacon NXP and Vacon drives. The replacement of these components meant that the life cycle of the Vacon drives on the vessel could be extended, minimising the vessel’s downtime and offering the client a significant cost saving compared to a complete replacement of the inverter drives. All replacement parts quoted were genuine OEM Danfoss components covered by the manufacturer’s warranty.

At MIT we can offer service and repair on Danfoss VLT and Vacon drives, including VLT and Vacon legacy drives.

Shipyard: Cardiff Bay

Vessel Type: Trailing suction hopper dredger

Builder: Barkmeijer Shipyards

Installed Power: 3 x 1,200 kw

Main Propulsion:  Rudder Propeller 2 x 1,500 kw

Danfoss drives: Vacon/ Vacon NX / Vacon NXP

Overall length: 78.0 m

Weight: 3,087 tonnes

Speed: 7.8 kn / 13.6 kn

Download the site assessment here