::Bangladesh Navy:::...Shipbuilding & Repair

BN DOCKYARD

BN DOCKYARD - CHITTAGONG

Introduction

1. BN Dockyard is the major repair establishment to provide repair and maintenance support to ships of Bangladesh Navy. It is situated on the bank of river Karnuphully. It has the capability to undertake all sorts of repair, refurbish and maintenance work related to BN ships and establishment with its own expertise and manpower. To provide an idea on the Organisation and activities of BN Dockyard the following will be discussed in brief:

a.    History of BN Dockyard.
b.    Outline of today’s Dockyard.
c.    Role and Function of BN Dockyard.
d.    Organisation.
e.    Infrastructure and Facilities.
f.     Training in BN Dockyard.

History of BN Dockyard

2.    It is to be mentioned that this particular part of the world has a century old glorious history of shipbuilding. Right here in Chittagong, this Dockyard built a wooden hull frigate for the German Navy in 1818. Unfortunately, in the industrial age, Dockyard was out of the race and the trend continued during the colonial rules. Before the independence in 1971 there was hardly any ship repair facility except a small base workshop in this part of the country.

Outline of Today’s Dockyard

3.    Over the last 30 years of its history, the Dockyard has grown from a base workshop facilities to one of the modest ship repair yards in our country. Spreading over 47 acres of land, it has wide range of engineering facilities to meet maintenance need of ships and craft. The Dockyard has strength of over 1400 employees, bulk of who are the industrial civilian workers. In its 22 workshops, the Dockyard undertakes about 100 jobs on any single day. In average, Dockyard takes nearly 30 ships per year for docking and refit. Besides supporting a growing naval fleet of more than 60 ships, this Dockyard also undertakes yearly about 30 project works. All together, about 1.3-million man-hour labor worth of about 6.5 million US$ is generated annually to accomplish the task.

Role of BN Dockyard

4.    The prime role of BN Dockyard is to keep BN fleet operational by rendering repair and maintenance support. The overall functions include:

a.    Designing and executing various naval projects, modifications, and up gradation works,   installations of new equipment etc.

b.    Major equipment and machinery repair including overhauling and testing.

c.    Recruiting Dockyard Civilian Personnel and train them.

d.    Development and repair of naval berthing facilities

e.    Arranging water and electricity supply and accommodation facility to the ships and her crews.

f.    Providing assistance to sister services, maritime agencies and other civil organisations.

Organisation

5. The Organisation is headed by Commodore Superintendent Dockyard or CSD in short. He works under the direct administrative and technical control of Naval Headquarters. He runs his Organisation through four Managers under him. Manager planning and Estimating carryout the planning of all the works including costing of manpower and material. Manager Production manages all the repair and maintenance including new projects and modification works. Manager personnel and administration looks after the administration and welfare of the civilian workers and Manager yard service provides yard and berth facilities to the ships and maintains yard machinery of BN Dockyard including Utility service. The other two units under CSD namely the shore establishment BN Dockyard and the floating dock BNFD SUNDARBAN are commanded by respective Commanding Officers. The Naval Armament Supply Officer, in short NASO, looks after the Naval Armament Supply Depot.

Infrastructure and Workshop Facilities

6. BN Dockyard has 22 workshops, these workshops deal with the various complex technology and intensive engineering systems onboard ship. Under the hull and mechanical department the workshops are:

a.    Diesel Engine Shop
b.    Machine Shop
c.    Fitting Shop
d.    Ship Fitting Shop
e.    Platter & Welding Shop
f.     Carpentry Shop
g.    Sail & Colour Loft
h.    Rigging Shop
j.     Life Raft Servicing Centre
k.    Motor Transport Workshop
l.     Lagging Shop
m.   Paint Shop
n.    Foundry Shop
p.    Fridge Shop

Hull Department.

7. The hull department is involved with the repair and maintenance of hull and structure of the ships. This department regularly undertakes steel works of hull/structure, re-furbishing of the old ships and construction of small size boats as well.

	a. Platter and Welding Shop Plater and welding shop has sufficient welding, cutting and plate fabrication facilities to carry out the repair and renewal of hull and structure of BN ships.
	b. Carpentry and Boat building Shop BN Dockyard has a carpentry shop for ships’ wooden works; boat building including construction of GRP boats. It also manufactures different souvenir items for visitors and foreign delegates as and when required.
	c. Sail and Color Loft Shop All the canvass, resin, leather, cloths etc. related works of ships and establishments are done by this shop. This shop has a number of sewing, over lock etc machinery to complete the given jobs.
	d. Rigging Shop Rigging works on different sizes of wire, nylon, coir ropes etc. are carried out in this shop. This shop as per requirement also manufactures coir fenders.
	e. Life Raft Servicing Center(LRSC) This shop undertakes the periodical servicing of life rafts as per SOLAS requirement. This shop has also the expertise to repair the rubber inflatable boats.
	f. Lagging Shop Lagging shop carries out lagging works on engines and its accessories, insulation works on internal hull plates, air conditioning and refrigeration machinery and its associated accessories on board BN ships.
	g. Paint Shop The Paint shop deals with protective coating of the ships. This shop carries out sand blasting on ships hull and structure before applying paints. Maintenance of ships’ hull particularly the under water portion is the main responsibility of this shop.

Mechanical Department

8. Workshops under Mechanical department carryout repair and maintenance of various systems and covers every facility for Marine Engineering:

a.    Diesel Engine Shop   Overhauling and repair works related to main propulsion engines, prime movers for generators, gearboxes, engines for auxiliary purposes etc are undertaken in Diesel Engine Shop. It has an engine test bench up to 4400 kW power range for checking the performance of almost all types of engines used in Bangladesh Navy. There are varieties of special tools, fuel pump test bench, governor test bench, injector servicing facilities, balancing machine etc available to conduct repair and overhauling works efficiently.

b.    Machine Shop   The machine shop is equipped with necessary machinery for precision works. It has a 13 m long lathe, which can handle the huge shaft of a Frigate of more than 10 tons in one piece. It has the capability to carry out shaft trueness. In addition, the shop also fabricates and modifies spares of emergency and urgent nature under the guidance of indigenous spares fabrication cell (ISFC).

c.    Fitting shop   The Fitting shop carries out repair of shafts, propellers, compressors, various types of pumps, cooler etc.

d.    Ship Fitting Shop   Ship fitting shop carries out repair of rudder, pipes, under water and above water valves, gratings, chain cable, anchor, exhaust bellows, strainers, etc.

d.    Fridge shop   The Fridge shop is capable of maintaining all refrigeration and air conditioning machinery. Recently this shop installed a number of air conditioning plants on board BN ships.

e.    Motor Transport (MT)Workshop   The MT workshop carries out repair and maintenance works of all naval motor transport at Chittagong area. It has sophisticated wheel balancing and automatic tyre removing machine.

f.   Foundry Shop   The Foundry shop carries out casting of different types of ferrous and non-ferrous materials. It has a cupola furnace to carry out ferrous casting up to maximum one ton at a time.

Electrical Department

9. With the rapid change of the world in the field of Electronics, to meet the repair facilities of the equipment fitted on board BN ships BN Dockyard is gradually modernising her repair facilities. To meet the vast area of electrical and electronics repair Bangladesh Navy has so far set up the following major workshops.

a.    Heavy Electrical Shop
b.    Weapon control, Gyro, and Sonar control shop
c.    Calibration Centre
d.    Radio Shop
e.    Radar Shop
f.     Battery and Electroplating shop
g.    Gun Shop
h.    Bhatiary store

10. Heavy Electrical Workshop Heavy Electrical shop is one of the key shops of BN DOCKYARD. The principal purpose of the workshop is to carryout repair/maintenance of various electrical equipment like AC/DC generator, AC/DC motor, Transformer, Converter, Rectifier, Battery charger etc of ship and establishment. However the workshop is capable of the following:

a.    Repair/Maintenance/Overhauling of all sorts of AC/DC generators up to 625 KVA used in naval ship/establishment.

b.     Repair/Maintenance/Overhauling of all sorts of AC/DC motors up to140 kW used in Navy.

c.    Repair/Maintenance/Overhauling of Rotary converter, Rectifier, Transformer and some household items eg. Fans, Blender, Washing machine Toaster, Vacuum cleaner etc.

d.    Rewinding of above-mentioned equipment including armature of DC machine designing, new commutator of DC machines. Have the experience to rewound AC motor up to 140 kW.

11. The Electrical Workshop is equipped with the following Equipment:

a.    Dummy Load Band   Used to provide electrical resistive load to test AC generator up to 618 kW and DC generator up to 352 Amps.

b.    Mechanical load tests bench   Used to provide mechanical load to various motors for up to 100 HP.

c.   Fixed and Variable Test Panel   Used to provide fixed/variable supply to test various electrical motors, like 0-400V, 60 Hz, 3 (variable) & 110V DC 175 Amps, 220V DC 352 Amps fixed.

d.   Industrial Oven   Used to heat up various electrical equipment to improve insulation/varnish. Maximum heating temperature is up to 2500 C and its volume is 08 m3 .

e. Impregnated Varnishing Plant Used to provide varnish to electrical equipment after rewinding/repair/maintenance.

f.     Winding machine   Used to carry out all sort of dedicated rewinding works of electrical machine.

Weapon Control, Gyro & Sonar Workshop

12. The weapon control, Gyro and sonar work shop is mainly consists of the following individual shops:

a.    Gyro Section   The Gyro workshop is equipped with maintenance equipment such as: System test Fixture, Phase sensitive element test Fixture, Inter cardinal swing control, Angle position indicator, Turn table, etc for the maintenance of electrical Gyros. It has limited capacity for the maintenance of Ring Laser Gyros also. This workshop takes up the maintenance work of various types of steering and auto pilot systems held in BN. Some renovation work has been done on board few BN ships that the old Master Gyro unit was replaced with a different type of Master Gyro unit keeping the transmission system unchanged. In that case, an interface unit was incorporated between Master unit and original transmission system.

b.    Weapon Control Section   This workshop has limited capacity of maintenance of all types of combat and weapon control system (WCS) held in BN. Normally it takes maintenance works in conjunction with PCB Repair Station and Gun workshop. It takes the maintenance work of various types of intercom and Gun communication system held in BN.

c.    Sonar Section   This workshop takes up the maintenance work of all type of Sonar, Echo Sounder and EM Logs held in BN. It has testing facilities of Echo Sounder and EM Logs also.

13.    Calibration Centre   The Calibration Centre is capable of Repair and Calibration of all types of test equipment held in BN. Such as: Missile test equipment, Microwave and Indicating equipment, Electrical & Electronic test equipment, Watch and Optic, etc. It carries out the maintenance of Generator & Engine control system and various types of control system held in BN. It also takes maintenance of medical instrument held in BN. It has facilities to carry out repair of PCBs, Printers and associated equipment held in BN. The shop has some advanced test equipment also like, EPROM and EEPROM programmer, Computer based IC tester, etc. This Centre has the facilities to repair all types of PCBs at the PCB Repair Station, which is equipped with modern equipment. Presently BN is taking steps for the modernisation of the PCB Repair Station. It has a SMD rework system too. The repair of all types of DATACOM and the FAX machines are also taken up in this Centre.

14.    Radio Workshop   Radio Workshop Play an important role to repair all type communication equipment (HF, MF, VHF & UHF range). This workshop has adequate test equipment and well-trained personnel to under take repair works of navigational aid, commercial/household electronic appliances, medical equipment etc.

15.    Radar Workshop   Radar workshop is a very special type of workshop dealing with the repair of all type of navigational, fire control and early warning radar. It has the capabilities to under take trouble shooting of electronics warfare equipment. Test equipment of latest version, test bench and well-trained experienced personnel has increased the repair facilities of this workshop immensely.

16.   Battery and Electroplating Workshop   Basically two separate workshops i.e. Battery workshop and Electroplating workshop are accommodated here in the same building. This workshop is capable of test, repair and maintenance of all types of lead acid/alkaline batteries used in BN. There are two distilling plants, which can produce distilled water by vaporising method. The capacity of each plant is 22 litres per hour. This distilled water is used specially to make electrolyte for battery. Electroplating works are being done here to meet the requirement of BN ship/Establishment. The name of plants and its functions are appended below:

a.   Hard Chromium Plant    To develop/build up of corroded or worn out shaft or piston ring up to required level.

b.   Oxidizing Plant   To harden the Aluminium plate (size up to plate 1000 x 2000 mm).

c.   Brush Plant   To develop/ build-up corroded or worn out bearing houses or shafts up to 0.03 mm.

d.   Turne Plant   To develop/build up of the corroded or worn out thrust bearing or large bearing up to 0.3mm.

e.   Galvanising Plant    To prevent the ferrous material from rust or other corrosion.

f.   Cyanide Copper Planting   Nickel Planting and Bright Chromium Plant. All the three types of plants are step by step plating for decorative work and also to prevent the corrosion of the metal.

g.   Acid Copper Plant   To develop the corroded or worn out thread, nut/bolt, die, etc.

17.    Gun Workshop   In this shop there are three gun bay of 100 mm, 57 mm (Chinese & Swedish) and 30 mm and a hard stand for 37 mm are available with cranes. The purpose of this Gun bay is to overhaul, servicing, repairing of all Gun Mountings including Hoist/Magazine drum and to check the performance of the control system. Now one crane of 25 tons and another of 10 tons capacity have been installed in the Gun workshop. Total repair of all type of guns, mountings, Rocket mounting, Under water weapons, Missile Launcher is possible in Gun workshop.

18.    Bhatiary Store   Different electronics item such as radar, GPS, echo sounder etc received from Bhatiary ship break yard are stored in Bhatiary store for on ward use as per the requirement in the ships/establishment.

19.    To carryout previously stated all the repair and maintenance works Dockyard has the facilities, which include:

Training in BN DOCKYARD

20. The training of civilian workers and sailors, carried out in different workshops are appended below:

a.   Training in General   In general the civilian workers are given training on their respective trade as on the Job basic. The experts carry out critical/precision works with the assistance of junior worker. Despite the workload of the shops few courses are conducted in the workshop for the civilian workers. A list of such courses is attached here with as annex A to this paper.

b.    Officers Training   For the specialisation courses for Engineering and Electrical branch officer on Job training for a duration of 4 weeks have been implemented recently. During this period student officers will undergo on the job training related to the respective professional subject as laid down in the syllabus.

c.    Sailors Training   BN Dockyard conducts various short courses as refresher course on the equipment and machinery introduced in BN. A list of course conducted by different workshop is given at annex B to this paper.

d.    Courses for Foreign Nationals   There is no specific course for Foreign nationals. Sometimes foreign nationals come with the training classes to do the on Job training in different workshop.