To meet Marine Class requirements, ship engines must, for safety reasons, be able to continue running without a shutdown system despite mechanical failure or a drop in engine performance. While there are situations where this is critical, it can lead to extensive engine damage, which can prove costly both in repair costs and in the time the vessel is out of the water. Thanks to the advanced level of control offered by DSE’s M840 Programmable Control Module, this Turkish vessel was able to overcome this dilemma while also meeting Marine Class requirements.

Twin Cummins engines were installed on the port and starboard sides of the vessel, and additional sensors were fitted to relay engine information from the engine ECUs to the DSEM840. The information gathered is presented on the M840’s large display in easy-to-read graphic, text and icon formats, improving access to and visibility of engine status and operating data. As an additional safeguard, all sensor values together with warning or shutdown conditions are also relayed to the Main Alarm Panel via a converter over CANBUS, MODBUS TCP/IP or MODBUS RTU.

Engine Shutdown is programmed to occur when certain conditions arise, such as Overspeed, Low Oil Pressure, High Engine Temperature or Low Transmission Pressure. For safety reasons, the shutdown and warning set points can only be changed within the DSEM840 by authorised technicians via a password-protected settings page. A shutdown override feature is also available.

“The M840 is programmed for Warning and Shutdown Outputs. If an engine is shut down, the Shutdown Output can be overridden by pressing and holding the relevant front panel button [on the M840] for 2 seconds: the display background colour changes and all Warning and Shutdown Outputs are silenced. The captain and crew can continue to operate the engine(s) in Shutdown Override Mode without any restriction; however, the date and time are recorded in the M840’s internal memory. With a second password, our authorised technicians can download the recorded data for analysis.” — Sinan Aslanyürek, Engineer.

Having this shutdown and override feature enables the captain or crew to decide whether the conditions and/or load are suitable for the vessel to continue on a single engine until repairs or maintenance can be carried out.