As of 1 July, 2004 IMO Solas Chapter XII/12 requires that water ingress detection systems are to be fitted on bulk carriers. In addition to cargo holds, large dry ballast tanks and voids forward of foremost cargo hold are to be monitored for water ingress. The regulation strives to enhance the safety of bulk carriers as several bulk carriers have been lost with crew because of water ingress through ruptured or lost side shell plating, and leaking hatch covers.

LevelDatic WIM is the next generation water ingress detection and monitoring system complying with all requirements in the IMO water ingress detection resolution. It is an intelligent system based on scientific principles allowing the system to detect any water in the cargo hold and monitor the change in water level.

LevelDatic WIM is built on the type approved LevelDatic 80S with a special protection pipe (patent pending) for the LevelDatic air pipes in cargo holds. The LevelDatic WIM protection pipe has been designed based on extensive testing in various bulk cargoes simulating various actual water leakage scenarios into holds, such as leaking through side shell damage at front or aft end of cargo hold, or through hatch cover.

The protection pipe allows any water in the cargo to penetrate into the protection pipe without any particles from the cargo entering the pipe. The pipe is also fitted with its own purge and cleaning possibility. There are no filters that need cleaning or replacement in LevelDatic WIM, nor are there any sensors, cabling or moving parts in the cargo holds that can be damaged by cargo or by cargo handling equipment like grabs and loaders.

The tests and measurements carried out under Classification society supervision show that LevelDatic WIM not only detects reliably and accurately the water in all bulk cargoes tested, but that the system can continuously monitor online the change in water levels in all cargoes under initially dry (no water), leaking (non-agitated) and wet (agitated) conditions.

The LevelDatic WIM alarm display has all the required alarm functions. In addition, the alarm panel has a display in which the water level in all cargo holds, dry spaces and empty ballast tanks instrumented can be monitored. The ship’s crew can see what is happening, is there water leaking into the hull, is the water level increasing and at what rate.

Humidity sensors presently installed on bulk carriers for water ingress detection are in comparison rather dumb compared to LevelDatic WIM. They assume that water will find the small sensor membrane, yet we know that different bulk cargoes absorb water differently, and some bulk cargoes hardly at all. In addition the humidity sensors give no information on what is happening should there be an alarm – is this a true alarm or just sensor malfunction?

LevelDatic WIM has been approved by all major classification societies.