Designing for Maintenance
For the cruise industry, one inherent challenge is the logistics of maintaining medical oxygen systems by qualified specialists. This is why it’s so important to engage your service provider during the design phase and discuss the systems being specified, so that all stakeholders have a comfortable understanding of what to expect regarding maintenance – the challenges, costs, etc.
Unlike shoreside hospitals, which typically have local or regional service providers who can respond quickly when called, cruise ships are always on the move. So, usually, maintenance must be scheduled within a designated window during an accessible port call, often after some degree of remote troubleshooting with onboard medical and/or technical staff. This further justifies the importance of a proactive preventative maintenance program, which becomes especially important as systems age under normal wear and tear and regular maintenance becomes more necessary.
But this also means that regular maintenance should be a consideration during the design phase. However, in my experience, this is rarely the case.
Consider that, typically, cruise ships are designed by European engineers, to European standards, built in European shipyards, but often flagged by non-European countries. Then, these ships are primarily based in Miami or Southampton or Civitavecchia (et al.), and then sail between ports in several countries over the course of a week or so. This means service response times by qualified specialists can often be long (especially with the constraints of the recent supply chain issues), and emergency response can be quite challenging.
One particular focus (among others) during the design phase should be your central source of supply.
In my experience, most manifolds – regardless of the manufacturer or country of origin – typically operate similarly. The primary differences are generally related to reliability (quality), the accessibility of product support by the manufacturer, and the availability of components and repair parts for maintenance. Plainly, some manufacturers simply do not support their products, or have limited stock or long lead times for parts, or only sell parts through manufacturer reps – any of these scenarios can create real safety concerns for the operation and maintenance of your systems.
Also, consider the type of manifold: Medical grade manifolds typically have built-in duplex redundancy as an added safety measure, meaning the system will continue to operate if one of the primary operating components fails or requires maintenance. However, simplex (lab-style) manifolds are still common among some designs; in a simplex design, a failure of any component renders the entire system inoperable until it can be repaired.
I can cite numerous examples of the medical staff forced to support oxygen demand using only bedside cylinders for weeks (and even months) because I couldn’t get product support from the manufacturer of their manifold.
This is one area where Specialty Oxygen Partners has the qualified expertise to assist you. So, contact us if you have questions or want to discuss this topic further.
