Page 110: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2012)

110Maritime Reporter & Engineering News Situated in the far southwest cor- ner of Bayou La Batre, Ala- bama, sits a top ship and boatbuilding company, Horizon Shipbuilding. For more than 15 years, Horizon has been building an array of im- pressive vessels, ranging from 30-ft. boats for the U.S. Navy to 200-ft. supply vessels. The family run business covers 12 acres with every available space ded- icated to building, repairing and main- taining boats. Horizon Shipbuilding is a full service company whose capabilities include design, construction, operation,maintenance and repair. One of the most common boats Horizon builds are the 140-ft. towboats, most of which end up pushing barges ? sometimes as many as 30 at a time ? up and down the Missis- sippi River. To move so many barges at one time, modern towboats need plenty of horse- power, and one result of these powerful high torque engines is they can produce harmonics: vibrations produced by thefiring and internal moving parts of the en- gine that adds wear and tear to the vessel. To ensure that doesn?t happen, vibration oscillator mounts must be installed be-tween the engine and engine mounts. Vi- bration Oscillators (VO) combat the back and forth vibrations produced by the highhorsepower engines. Installing VO mounts is a big job con- sidering that each engine can weigh 18tons. Roger Oliver the 10 year Production Superintendent at Horizon, who is re-sponsible for ?everything in the yard,? knows this job all too well. ?By the time you get them in, get everything aligned, pulled back out and drilled and set backin there, you?re looking at a three day evolution. We used to have to take the en- gines right out of the boat, make the holes, and then set them back in.? To install VO mounts, each engine has to be lowered into the engine compart- ment, lined up on the guide posts, holesmarked, then hoisted back up and out so 24 holes through A36 material could be drilled with a magnetic drill and mountsinstalled. Then the tedious task of re- aligning the engine back on the guides.After which it is lowered down and fi- nally secured into place. ?When realign-ing these engines we shoot for a toleranceof zero, but the tolerance on an engine like this is .002? said Oliver. For Horizon, the ability to fully design and construct a boat from the ground upis one of the keys to their success. And PRODUCT FEATURE BOATBUILDING Using the Right Tool Can $ave Horizon Shipbuilding in Bayou La Batre, Alabama saves time and money with a new VO mount installation tool Above: Drilling a Hole withHMD150 Magnetic Drillunder the Engine.Below:Horizon Shipbuildingbuilds an array of vessels.MR#11 (106-113):MR Template 11/6/2012 10:52 AM Page 110