Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2011)

DMW Marine 102 Pickering Way Suite 503 Exton, PA 19341 ph 610.363.3846 • fax 610.363.6726 • www.dmwmarine.com 28 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

CASE STUDY SIEMENS & ROBICHAUX AUTOMATION & CONTROL

For users troubleshooting systems with components, subsystems and software from different sources, "finger pointing" – the tendency of vendors to blame each other –has to be the most frustrating ex- perience, sometimes a nightmare. But in the maritime industry, it can be much more than that: when a vessel’s multi- vendor electrical and automation system goes down, thousands of dollars a day can be lost, and the blame game can ex- tend troubleshooting from days to weeks.

Robichaux Automation and Control,

Inc. (RAACI), a female owned small business and one of Louisiana’s fastest growing marine systems integrators, knows all about the high stakes its clients face. In addition to the company's marine systems expertise and Defense Priority

Rating, its status as a female owned small business helps the Navy and its other

Federal Government customers satisfy federally mandated small business goals.

Among those clients are: • Bollinger Shipyards where RAACI is manufacturing S-120 Siemens Active

Front End (AFE) Bowthruster drives as well as Main, Emergency and Shore

Power Switchboards (450V) for 34

USCG "Fast Response Cutter" vessels. • Montco Offshore where RAACI is designing and building a complete Diesel

Electric Propulsion System, which will include two 2,400 HP Siemens S-120 Ac- tive Front End Water-Cooled Drives for the world’s largest cylindrical lift boat.

The vessel’s alarm and power manage- ment systems will include an auto paral- leling 690V and 480V Switchboard with

Siemens VL/WL Circuit Breakers. This 335-foot floating giant with three cranes has 15,400 square feet of deck and 1.5 million pounds of deck load capacity. • The U.S. Navy, which is upgrading its machinery control system with a

RAACI Machinery Control System com- prising 6,500 I/O points on its USNS

Seay, a 951-foot, 62,000-ton BOB

HOPE-class supply ship. • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where RAACI is providing a complete

Pump Control Panel, Automation and

Controls System for a Louisiana flood control project, which is the world’s largest, with pumps so powerful they can fill an Olympic-size pool in three sec- onds.

These clients and many others chose

RAACI as a sole-source integrator for their projects’ electrical and automation control systems because of its reputation for designing, engineering, building, commissioning and fully supporting cost- effective, marine automation and control systems. "Referrals are our best sources of new business," said RAACI President Trudy

Robichaux. "Since we opened our doors in 2005, we’ve hardly advertised or even had a sales person. We’ve been fortunate in that regard, but it also speaks for our client service as well as the quality and execution of our work, which is consis- tently on-time and on-budget."

REDUCING RISK

Dennis Robichaux, the firm’s vice- president, explains that a big value in being a sole source for integrated electri- cal and automation control systems in maritime applications is reducing the risk to vessel builders and owner/operators alike. "Risk in shipbuilding can take many forms," Mr. Robichaux said. "Will

Siemens & Robichaux Automation & Control

Simple Solutions to Complex Problems

Fast-growing systems integrator making its maritime mark as sole-source for marine automation and electrical systems