GSI Two Global First Ships Delivery Imminent

Wang Jin, Kuang Zhanting, Peng Yonggui

The whole ship decoration of the first luxury ro-ro passenger vessel with a 3800m lane and 2500-passenger capacity built by the CSSC Guangzhou Shipyard International Co Ltd (GSI)for Italy-based shipping company Moby Line of Onorato was recently completed and berthed at the Nansha International Cruise Home Port, where the world"s largest-gross-ton luxury ro-ro passenger ship is expected to hold a naming ceremony.

Meanwhile, the first luxury roro passenger vessel with a 3658m lane and 1500-passenger capacity built by GSI for the UK-based P&O Ferries was under wharf test. This is the world"s first"four-wheel drive battery hybrid" roro passenger ship, and also the world"s largest ship with two-way bow and stern navigation, which completed the first sea trial before the National Day. At present, the interior decoration integrity and beautification is advancing and a joint test of the functional systems in the engine room and cabin area are under way.

The subsequent ship, the MOBY luxury or-ro passenger ship 2 embarkation is being carried out at the dock, and the P&O luxury or-ro passenger ship 2 has entered the onwharf building stage. In addition, GSI also holds the order of Mediterranean Shipping’s 4 environment-friendly luxury ro-ro passenger vessels each with 3100m lane and 1500-passenger capacity, whose design and preparation are at full steam.

GSI not only maintains the delivery record of the "single champion" position in China and the world in luxury roro passenger ship products, but also is constantly improving the operation and construction level of luxury ro-ro passenger ship, building the large highend ship product into a new batch ship type of the company.

Sound and rapid

Luxury ro-ro passenger ship is recognized as a high-end ship in the shipbuilding industry, uniformly known as a "quasi-cruise ship".

Take the MOBY luxury ro-ro passenger ship as an example, with 70,000 gross tons, an overall length of 237 meters, a molded breadth of 33 meters,and a draft of 7.2 meters, it is the largest GT luxury ro-ro passenger ship in the world. The ship has 13 decks, 4 garages,536 cabins and 3,800 meters of cargo lane, can accommodate 2,500 passengers;internal entertainment, leisure and catering facilities are all available,comparable to a luxury cruise, equivalent to a 10-story "floating five-star hotel"with a 4-story garage.

In the world"s largest luxury roro passenger ship, the magnitude of structures is second to none. The whole ship cable length reaches 946 km,equivalent to the distance from Guangzhou to Chongqing; the vertical height is nearly 40 meters, and it is divided into 14 zones for construction, and the engineering size is comparable to a small and mediumsized luxury cruise ship. Let alone the fine interior trimming requirements,strict vibration and noise control, and elevated engineering quantities and quality requirements brought about by the continuous implementation of new IMO rules and regulations and continuous implementation of new standards for environmental protection and safety.

The participating teams of the project differentiated key points, crushed them one by one,implemented the "balanced and orderly" division of labor planning,continuously optimized the construction process, and improved the production efficiency. The insulation encapsulation was started in the dock stage for the first time,and 98% of the cabin painting below deck 3 was completed before undocking, breakthrough and uplifting were realized in coating integrity, creating the best record of undocking integrity for GSI luxury roro passenger ships. In the wharf stage,the internal decoration engineering of 228 superstructure cabins and and construction of the whole ship carpets,creating the best record of conditions before sea trial. The pattern of cabin unit overall fabrication was applied to carry out the cabin interior decoration,laying the solid foundation to shorten the construction cycle of the wharf stage. In the sea trial stage, the record for the shortest sea trial cycle of the export-oriented luxury ro-ro passenger ship completed in 128 hours.

Better and efficient

As a high-end ship product, one of the similarities of a luxury ro-ro passenger ship and a luxury cruise ship lies in the pursuit of innovation. Global first created by P&O first luxury ro-ro passenger ship lies not only in its power system using the generator and battery pack hybrid power system (hybrid),each of front and rear equipped with two pod propellers (all-wheel drive),the ship also adopts a variety of new technologies and new design, ensuring its global leading position in economic and environment performance.

For the first time in the world,a ro-ro passenger ship is equipped with four full-rotary pods propulsion system. The pod propulsion system that can rotate 360 degrees can improve the flexibility of the ship reaching port, and the motor in the pod can save the pod space and improve the utilization rate of the ship space. However, the new technology means new challenges. The participating team of the project set up a special adjustment promotion team,analyzing the system manipulation logic together with the equipment manufacturer, and meticulously deploying the operation plan for crutial battle.

The ship has a battery capacity of 8.8 megawatt hours, with 1,160 batteries to be installed in four battery bays, with an average weight of 75 kg battery, which involves construction difficulty and heavy workload. In order to ensure the safe installation of the batteries, the project construction team organized the battery system battle commando, working on two shifts and taking turns, and finally completed the installation task in only 20 days, one week earlier than the schedule.

The ship exterior curtain wall has 176 pieces of glass, which is the largest marine glass exterior curtain wall installed in China, filling the domestic gap in the ship’s large glass exterior curtain wall constructiona.In order to present the smooth arc shape and realize the artistic effect of narrow frame, the glass curtain wall adopts the fixed construction process of no screws, no pressure frame and full adhesive, with extremely high requirements for construction environment and window frame structure accuracy. In order to ensure the quality of construction,the project team set up a special team for external curtain wall glass installation, organized relevant experts to carry out more than 30 special seminars, forming a safe and efficient installation scheme, and finally successfully realized the "zero"damage installation.