The flagship of the US Sixth Fleet is again docked at the shipyard in Rijeka, which is using latest technologies in order to perform the overhaul.
USS Mount Whitney, the command ship of the US Sixth Fleet, is currently undergoing a regularly scheduled overhaul at the Viktor Lenac shipyard in Rijeka. The shipyard has used the opportunity to present the latest robotic UHPW technology for processing ship’s surfaces with water. This is a replacement for traditional processes which have been causing trouble for years for the inhabitants of the local area due to the noise that is being produced, reports Večernji List on March 30, 2017.
The new technology uses water and chemically removes paint from metal by means of a device which the shipyard calls Spider. It uses magnetic field to attach itself to the hull of the ship, and then moves in order to remove paint from the hull. The liquid used is drained with pipes to special containers, where it is filtered and re-used, while removed paint particles are collected in a container, thereby protecting the environment.
“The device produces a noise of less than 60 db and in one hour can process an area of 50 square metres. It can operate 24 hours a day without a break. As noted in the presentation, thanks to its efficiency and speed, in eight hours of operations it can replace as many as 10 workers. By the complexity of services performed, the Viktor Lenac shipyard is at the very top of the global ship overhaul industry”, said the town authorities in Rijeka.
The presentation was attended by Ambassador of the United States to Croatia Julieta Valls Noyes, Mayor of Rijeka Vojko Obersnel, Deputy Prefect of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Marina Medarić, representatives of the government and ministries, as well as the Commander of the Croatian Navy Rear Admiral Predrag Stipanović.
The Ambassador thanked the representatives of the shipyard for the excellent multi-year partnership, during which the Viktor Lenac shipyard performed for the US Ministry of Defence works worth over 70 million dollars. This is the fourth time that USS Mount Whitney, the command ship of the Sixth Fleet, is undergoing overhaul at the shipyard, each time with new, highly demanding jobs that are always perfectly done, said Ambassador Valls Noyes.
