Since the development of the first steamers, marine engines have ensured power, reliability and safety for transporting people and goods all over the world. Introduced in the first half of the 20th century, turbochargers have become an essential technological supplement for the development of these engines and the spectacular growth of a sector that revolutionized world trade.
Despite the fact that they are designed to have a prolonged lifespan, turbochargers may suffer different faults with ranging repair complexity. Even though the first option may be to fully replace them, carrying out scheduled overhauls and specific repairs may very frequently be a much better option in terms of cost-benefit balance, representing an efficient way to save resources without affecting engine performance and other components.
To achieve an optimal result it is necessary to do an adequate diagnosis carried out by specialists, taking into account the fault (if there was any), possible causes, maintenance records, and any other previous repairs, also adding the work conditions analysis of the turbocharger.
Adequate maintenance is essential to ensure that these equipments work safely and reliably, minimizing breakdown chances and non-programmed shutdowns that could lead to technical, operational and economic losses for the company.
As was mentioned previously, the team in charge of supervising the turbochargers’ work must keep detailed records of any information related with their regular maintenance as well as any ordinary or extraordinary technical intervention done to them, making sure this data is available when scheduling future overhauls and looking for potential breakdown causes.
Apart from the regular maintenance and check out process, that includes the dismantling, examination and parts replacement; the disassembly of a turbocharger represents an exceptional opportunity to inspect the current state of all its components, look for possible failure causes related to the malfunctioning (if there was any) and recommend the necessary actions to be undertaken for maximizing their operational efficiency.
During this procedure, turbochargers are dismantled part by part and analyzed to determine if there are any damaged components, changing them if necessary, or simply repairing them in order to achieve full and renovated efficiency.
