Electrical and Control Systems Built Around the Vessel
When a vessel depends on electrical, automation and control systems working together, the challenge is rarely confined to one component.
WTM Electrical helps vessel builders, operators, OEMs and engineering teams bring those systems together across new builds, upgrades and existing vessels.
WTM Electrical helps vessel builders, operators, OEMs and engineering teams bring electrical, automation and control systems together across new builds, upgrades and existing vessels.
Built for the people responsible for marine systems
WTM works around the application — matching the priorities of vessel builders, operators, engineering teams and marine OEMs.
The priorities are different depending on whether you are building the vessel, operating it, engineering the project or supplying the equipment. WTM works around the application — helping solve the electrical and control requirements that sit between those responsibilities.
Vessel Builders
Bring electrical, control panels, automation and equipment interfaces together earlier in the build.
When a new vessel brings together power, controls, machinery, instrumentation and multiple suppliers, each interface can create another point of risk. WTM can support the electrical, control-panel and automation requirements around the build and help keep those parts aligned.
Talk Through Your BuildVessel Operators
Investigate faults, obsolete equipment and upgrades without assuming the whole system needs replacing.
When a system is unreliable, obsolete or no longer doing what the vessel needs, replacing everything is not always the right answer. WTM can help investigate the problem, work with the existing system and identify a practical path forward.
Talk Through the ProblemEngineers & Project Teams
Support where electrical, controls, I/O, instrumentation and equipment interfaces cross disciplines.
Some applications do not fit neatly within one discipline. WTM can work alongside engineering and project teams where electrical, controls, I/O, instrumentation and equipment interfaces need to come together.
Discuss Your ProjectMarine OEMs
Custom panels, automation and equipment interfaces built around specialist marine machinery.
Specialist marine equipment often needs an electrical and control system built around the machine rather than selected from a catalogue. WTM can support custom panels, automation, I/O and equipment integration around the OEM application.
Discuss an OEM RequirementWhen the problem doesn't fit neatly into one box
Electrical, control and instrumentation problems often overlap.
The symptom may appear in one part of the vessel while the actual cause sits somewhere else.
A vessel may have an electrical problem.
Or a control problem.
Or an instrumentation problem.
But once those systems start interacting, the line between them becomes less obvious.
A sensor may be working correctly while the signal never reaches the controller. The PLC may be doing exactly what it has been programmed to do while the field equipment behaves differently than expected. A replacement component may solve one issue but introduce another interface that was never there before.
That is where isolated troubleshooting and isolated supply can become expensive.
WTM helps bring the pieces together.
By looking across electrical, control, I/O, instrumentation and equipment interfaces, WTM can approach the problem as part of the wider vessel system.
By looking across electrical, control, I/O, instrumentation and equipment interfaces, the problem can be approached as part of the wider vessel system rather than as a collection of unrelated components.
Capability across the system
Different projects need different levels of support. WTM's value is the ability to work across several of the areas that commonly meet inside a marine electrical and control system.
Marine Electrical Systems
Electrical systems and modifications built around the vessel, equipment and application.
Electrical systems, modifications and integration around the requirements of the vessel, equipment and application. From new installations to changes within an existing system, the electrical work needs to support what the vessel actually has to do.
Switchboards & Control Panels
Custom panels and electrical assemblies designed as part of the wider control system.
Custom control panels and electrical assemblies built around the equipment they have to operate. The panel is treated as part of the wider system — not simply an enclosure filled with components.
Explore SwitchboardsAutomation & PLC
PLC, I/O, HMI and monitoring built around what the application needs to do.
PLC, distributed I/O, HMI, monitoring and control for applications where standard equipment alone does not provide the required result. The technology matters. What the system enables matters more.
Explore AutomationSystem Integration
Bring electrical, controls, instrumentation and third-party equipment together as one system.
Bringing electrical, automation, instrumentation and third-party equipment together so the different parts of the application can operate as one system.
Explore IntegrationService & Upgrades
Trace faults, replace obsolete equipment and expand systems already in service.
Support for systems already in service — from tracing faults and replacing obsolete equipment to expanding functionality or integrating new hardware.
Explore ServiceOne system. Fewer gaps between suppliers.
A marine project can involve separate electrical, panel, automation, instrumentation and equipment suppliers.
The difficult problems often sit between those scopes.
Commercial Integration
Less fragmentation. Clearer responsibility. Better system alignment.
WTM can work across multiple layers of the system, helping reduce handovers and keep the solution aligned around the application.
Less fragmentation.
Clearer responsibility.
Better system alignment.
A marine project can involve an electrician, panel builder, PLC programmer, instrumentation supplier, equipment manufacturer and commissioning team.
Each one may do their part correctly.
The difficulty often sits between those parts.
Less fragmentation.
Clearer responsibility.
Better system alignment.
Commercial Integration
Less fragmentation. Clearer responsibility. Better system alignment.
Where the project requires it, WTM can work across multiple layers of the electrical and control system — helping reduce handovers, simplify communication and keep the solution aligned around the application.
Electrical systems need to match the panel. The panel needs to match the control architecture. The PLC needs the right signals. The instrumentation needs to provide usable information. The equipment needs to respond the way the control system expects.
When those responsibilities are split across separate suppliers, small assumptions can become large commissioning problems.
A practical path from problem to working system
The starting point is not a particular component or brand. It is understanding what the vessel or equipment actually needs to do.
Understand
What needs to operate, what already exists and where are the interfaces?
Define
Set the practical electrical and control approach.
Build
Prepare the required panels, assemblies and control hardware.
Integrate
Connect I/O, instrumentation, controls and equipment.
Commission
Test the system as a working application.
Support
Work from the system behaviour back to the cause when something changes.
Understand
Start with the application. What needs to operate? What already exists? What are the constraints? Where are the interfaces?
Define
Work out the practical electrical and control approach before adding unnecessary complexity.
Build
Prepare the required panels, electrical assemblies and control hardware around the application.
Integrate
Connect the control system, I/O, instrumentation and equipment so each part has the information and response it needs.
Commission
Test the system as a working application rather than simply checking individual components.
Support
When requirements change or something stops behaving as expected, work from the system back to the cause.
Control beyond the switchboard
A PLC is only part of a control system.
The value comes from understanding what needs to be measured, controlled, communicated and shown to the operator.
Adding a PLC does not automatically create a good control system.
The value comes from understanding what needs to be measured, what decisions need to be made and what the equipment needs to do in response.
WTM can work with the control layers that sit between the field equipment and the operator, including:
- PLC control
- distributed and remote I/O
- HMI and operator interfaces
- instrumentation integration
- monitoring and alarms
- industrial communications
The value is not the PLC. It is what the system does.
Explore Automation & Control
Built in the workshop. Built for the application.
A control panel should make sense as part of the wider system — including its wiring, I/O, communications, equipment interfaces and future service requirements.
A control panel should not be designed in isolation from the system around it.
Space, field wiring, I/O, communications, equipment interfaces, serviceability and future changes all affect how the panel should come together.
WTM builds electrical and control assemblies with the wider application in mind, including custom control panels, PLC/I/O panels and equipment-specific electrical assemblies.
The goal is not simply a neat panel. It is a panel that makes sense as part of the system.
Explore Switchboards & Control PanelsDifferent vessels. Different systems. Different problems.
Examples of the types of applications WTM can support.
Marine projects rarely arrive as identical repeat jobs. The electrical and control approach needs to suit the vessel, equipment, operating requirement and the systems already around it. The following are examples of the types of applications WTM can support.
Commercial Vessels
Integrated electrical and control systems for working vessels.
Electrical and control requirements for vessels where reliability, maintainability and practical system integration matter every day.
Workboats
Compact, practical systems built around demanding operating requirements.
Compact, functional systems for vessels where equipment, space and operating demands all have to work together.
Ferries
Electrical, controls and equipment integration across vessel systems.
Support for electrical and control requirements across vessel systems, upgrades and integrated equipment.
Marine OEM Equipment
Custom control packages for specialist marine machinery.
Custom panels, control systems and interfaces for specialist equipment being incorporated into a larger vessel system.
New Builds
Coordinate electrical, control and equipment requirements from the beginning.
Support where electrical, control and equipment requirements need to be coordinated from the beginning.
Refits & Upgrades
Integrate new equipment with systems already in service.
Practical changes to existing vessels where new equipment has to coexist with systems already in service.
Specialist Marine Systems
For requirements that do not fit a standard solution.
For applications where the requirement does not fit neatly into a standard product or predefined solution.
Got a marine electrical or control challenge that doesn't have an obvious answer?
You do not need to have the solution worked out. Tell WTM what the vessel or system is doing now — and what you need it to do instead.
You do not need to have the solution worked out before making contact.
Explain what the vessel, equipment or system is doing now — and what you need it to do instead. WTM can start from there.
Joel Schodde — Director
+61 447 910 210