Introduction of more sophisticated, wide range controls on Navy and merchant marine ships, coupled with lack of experienced personnel and high turnover, have created a great need for fast and effective training of boiler-control operators. Inadequately trained operators often misinterpret or fail to quickly recognize even simple casualties. Subsequent misdirected action can create major problems that affect overall operation of the ship, and on occasion have resulted in shutdown at sea. Not only must new personnel be trained, but operators from hand-fired ships slated to operate automatic equipment must also have their knowledge upgraded. However, training during actual operation is inadequate since simulated faults cannot be introduced into a boiler system without affecting operation.
To solve these problems of operator training, Bailey Meter Company, Wickliffe, Ohio, has developed a combustion and feedwater control simulator, consisting of computer equipment which simulates the operating characteristics of the ship's boiler during steady-state and maneuvering conditions; two-element steam pressure control, and a multi-element feedwater control. The simulator is pneumatically operated from a source of 30 psig air.
Two consoles are provided, one for the trainee and another for the instructor. The trainee's console duplicates the ship's console. It contains the combustion and feedwater control equipment, and is used for solving operating and casualty control problems. The instructor's console houses the boiler simulating equipment, and is used for varying the load and introducing various operating casualties.
Three simulators have been shipped to date; one each to Navy destroyer schools at San Diego and Newport, R.I., and the third to the Maritime Academy at Buzzards Bay, Mass. A fourth simulator is scheduled for installation aboard the carrier USS Ranger, which will enable the crew to maintain a continuous onboard training program.
A subsidiary of The Babcock & Wilcox Company since 1925, Bailey Meter Company is a leading manufacturer of instrumentation, control computers, and systems for process and powerplant automation.