Page 9: of Marine News Magazine (July 2026)

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Insights

Back to the Drawing Board mess of loose parts, but a number of years before I was what if the wire rope is greased or coated? Can I actually involved in an equally exhaustive engine failure where, see where there is rust or not beneath the grease?

after many many hours, we established the cause was a This is where AI comes in and there are various efforts loose counterweight. at using AI to inspect wire rope. Some efforts use a device

Due to the experience of that earlier inspection, that travels along the wire rope and measures and scans the something tipped me off and I managed to look like a wire rope. That is nice, but not real chicken sexing. Hope- real-life expert. fully there will be an effort soon where wire ropes of differ-

Expertise is fun. There are many expertise jokes out ent sizes, ages and conditions are scanned in the presence there, and most come down to the same concept. Some- of a real wire rope expert and build into an AI data base. I body calls an expert with a problem, the expert provides can then scan a wire rope with my cellphone camera and if the answer immediately and then the client wants to know it fails, I can send it to the tray of male chicks. how he knows that is true. The expert then says: “I gave Although, I expect it will become more dif? cult to ? nd you the answer for free, if you want me to explain how I a tray of male chicks. The chicken industry is huge, and know it, it is going to cost you.” chick sexing is a core cost. Therefore, there are very impres-

I Iove working with true experts. They don’t even cost sive AI efforts in chick sexing and some of those efforts fo- me a lot of money, because I generally am not stupid cus on in-egg sexing rather than hatchling sexing. This ap- enough to ask for the “why” after they gave me the “what”. parently makes some animal lovers happier, but eliminates

Experienced surveyors can board a vessel and will know human sexers. All technology is good and bad, and the in seconds whether a ship is going to be OK or not. The evaluation of technology always raises complicated ques- rest of the time is spent on ? guring out what is OK or not. tions. Does a chick’s life begin after hatching, or in the egg?

But that does not mean an experienced surveyor is ex- Regardless, safer wire ropes is a win/win. pert on everything. One thing that continues to frustrate me is wire rope inspections. There are many guides and

For every column I write New Wave Media makes a instructions for wire rope inspections but, especially to an small contribution to an organization of my choice. engineer, they are fuzzy and inexact and even inconsistent

For the foreseeable future I am selecting SL7Expo. from guide to guide.

An industry wide effort to develop a Smithsonian level

The effect is strange because, for example, a wire rope is exhibit center for commercial maritime. https://sl7expo.org/members/ not supposed to have rust on it, but does a light rust spot in one location condemn an entire wire rope or not? And www.marinelink.com MN 9|