Repair and maintenance to thrusters without the need for drydock saves time and money.
One company, Hydrex now provides a worldwide fast-response solution to deal with most bow and stern thruster problems, including complete overhaul and replacement of blades or seals for all types
The work is done on site and can usually be completed within a few days of contact.
The company have pioneered the techniques to remove and replace thrusters quickly, by creating a dry environment underwater. They use devices developed in house and fabricated in steel that they call MobDocks to seal off the thruster tunnel, work teams access the thruster tunnel and remove or repair the thruster within the tunnel in complete safety.
Lightweight and flexible MobDocks are now available for most situations.
A permanent standby thruster repair or replacement system has also been developed to cut possible down-time to an absolute minimum.
This can be included in the planning for a newbuild, installed on a unit going to drydock or constructed and brought onboard at any other suitable time.
With such a system on standby any repair work can be dealt with very quickly.