The transport ships are under heavy fire from their customers these days. The leaking hatch covers have become an intense debate among the transport ship owners and the customers who have lost valuable goods during the voyages. Although the transport ship owners claim to be doing the right Hatch cover maintenance and watertight integrity testing on their ships, but still goods are being damaged during the voyages. There can be various reasons for the hatch covers to be still leaking even though they have been tested and maintained. The main reason for the leaks to be still present is the use of the old and worn out methods to do the testing.

The water hose testing is the oldest method known to man. Although the water hose test looks good and reliable, but in reality, it is not as the water is sprayed on the boundaries of the hatch covers, it does not provide the rightful results. Water hose tests can guide the crew to a number of leaks in the covers, but they fail to provide the direction to the holes present just a little way beyond the hatch covers. During the voyages, these unfound holes act as the door for water to enter the cargo holds and wreak havoc inside without anyone noticing.

The best way to find holes, even the tiniest ones, is by using the ultrasonic hatch cover tester which is by far the most advanced leak detector of the present times. Using the ultrasonic waves to find leaks and holes in a body, it guides the crew to the minutest hole and lets them know about the intensity of the hole. Without having accurate knowledge of the holes (their presence and size), the crew can never decide a refill. The metal sheets have been eaten by the rust and there are holes of various sizes. But some holes are small enough to fool the hose pipe. In case of the ultrasonic leak detector, these holes are easily found and the crew can take a manual inspection just to be sure.

The ultrasonic device not only provides accurate location of the holes in the huge metal sheets of the ship’s body, it also provides the crew knowledge about the cable transit areas watertight testing. Since there is no chance a short circuit can be acceptable during a voyage, it is essential to protect the cables from any water damage to let the engines running flawlessly. A minute spark can ignite an uncontrollable fire onboard. And when the ship is already miles away from its destination, putting out the fire will only save the goods but the deadline will be easily skipped.