Abstract
Corrosion Control Information Management System (CCIMS) is a US Navy partnership success story which consolidates corrosion control databases. Historically naval activities used various preservation databases to record the conditions of in-service coating systems, track material conditions and provide inspection and repair lists for components. Lack of a central database degraded the Navy’s ability to maintain data integrity. Consolidation of databases solved facility connectivity, data transfer, and communication problems and improved data accessibility, consistency and reliability.
CCIMS is the repository for storage of in-service coating inspection data. CCIMS sets uniform inspection fields and a common database dictionary for surface ships and aircraft carriers. The submarine side is similar so that analysis across all Navy ships can be achieved. Conversion of the program to a web-based environment provided approved inspectors and managers anywhere in the world the ability to enter, view, and query data and facilitated better management of thousands of tanks and voids.
The useful life of a ship is often determined by the structural integrity of the internal steel structure which is degraded by the effects of corrosion. As the fleet ages, coating systems must be replaced as part of the corrosion control effort. Because this coating replacement is difficult and time-consuming, the maintenance of tanks and voids of ships and submarines is one of the highest costs to the Type Commander’s operational budget. When coatings replacements are not accomplished at the proper place and time; structural degradation occurs and repairs are required.
CCIMS provides a standardized procedure for inspecting, classifying, and performing planned maintenance on slow-to-degrade systems and provides standardized report forms for recording inspection results. It minimizes life cycle costs by setting assessment requirements for tank and void entries and controlling the number of entries over the entire ships service life. Analysis of CCIMS data facilitates generation of workload predictions, based on baseline condition, to align maintenance with industrial resource capabilities. CCIMS will facilitate ranking the performance of all coating systems, including the new high solids edge retentive preservation systems. Such evaluations can be used to determine if current inspection frequencies can be increased to avoid unnecessary costs or decreased to prevent expensive structural repairs.
CCIMS supports the Navy’s maintenance strategy objectives of the strategy of maintaining adequate material condition of ships’ tanks and structure to support the platform’s designated service life without compromising structural integrity or operational readiness (e.g. cleanliness of fluid systems - operational speed or ability to dive to test depth). It accomplishes this and minimizes life cycle costs by:
Facilitate analysis to accurately predict preservation maintenance requirements and forecast fiscal and industrial resources to execute the maintenance.
Determining the effectiveness of state of the art preservation systems which may minimize/eliminate future preservation requirements.
Reduce closed-space entries by making results of tank and void assessments universally available and thereby eliminating the need to prematurely re-inspect.
