5 Loadicator tricks that can ease

your life during cargo operation

Written by Capt Rajeev Jassal on March 6, 2016

Have you ever imagined our onboard stay without loadicator ? While some
intellectuals might find it of no difference to live without it, most of us cannot
imagine how difficult it will be to calculate trims, drafts etc manually. And most
difficult part (rather an impossible one) will be to calculate Shear forces (SF) &
bending moments (BM) manually.

So while most of us agree that loadicator has made our life onboard (Definitely the
chief officers) simple, are we using our loadictor to only calculate drafts, trims
and stability?
There are many other things that we can use loadicator for. This post will highlight
at least five of these things you can do with loadicator.

But before you so anything with loadicator, it is important to ensure that loadicator
complies with the testing and carriage requirements.
Assuming your loadicator complies with all requirements, Let us take recap of
what we generally do with Loadicator.

Usual things everyone does on

Loadicator
The first thing we do on receiving the voyage instructions is plan the stowage. And
the first thing we keep our eyes on while planning the stowage on loadicator is trim
and list. Loadicator give us trim and list that the vessel will have in a particular
stage of the stowage.

Other than trim and list, we also ensure that shear forces and bending moments
does not exceed the safe limits.

Loadicators give the SF and BM values as the percentage of allowed limit. Ship
staff is expected to keep it to the minimum but in any case less than 100% of the
allowed limits.

Even keeping the SF & BM closer to but less than 100% over a longer period &
multiple voyages can have the cracks developing in the ships structure. And for
this reason, we should always do our best to keep these values to the minimum.
Loadicator off course help us to find these values with few clicks.
Vessels are also required to comply with the intact stability requirement as per
SOLAS. Again Loadicator helps us to get values to judge if we comply with these
requirements.
Some type of ships are also required to comply with damage stability criteria by
different regulations.
For example, chemical tankers are required to comply with damage stability
criteria by IBC code (International code of carriage of chemicals in Bulk).
Similarly oil tankers are required to comply with damage stability criteria by
Marpol & gas tankers by IGC code.

Until now it was not a requirement for ships loadicators to have capability of
calculating damage stability. But Marpol, IBC code and IGC code was
amended by Res MEPC 248(66), Res MSC.369 (93) and Res MSC.370
(93) respectively. First special survey after 01 Jan 2016, all tankers need to have
loadicator that can calculate damage stability.
But even before this requirement, many ships were provided with the loadicators
that could calculate the compliance with damage stability requirements.

Additional tasks that can be performed

on Loadicator
Apart from the usual task that we perform on loadicator, there are some other tasks
which can come very handy.

1. Online Loading or unloading rate

If your loadicator is online, you can also get live loading or discharging rate from
individual tanks and as total rate. This information can be very handy when you are
loading in more than one tank.

If you need to receive the cargo in these tanks equally, this function of loadicator
can be used. Similarly if you need to receive lesser cargo in one or few tanks, again
this information comes handy.

If you are correcting list during loading or discharging, looking at the live rate can
give you fair indication of effectiveness of your actions.
This rate in loadicator is calculated as an average over a particular time. Say if the
time for calculating average is set to 10 minutes, loadicator will calculate the
difference in cargo quantity for last 10 minutes and average it for one hour to give
you loading or discharge rate.

In some loadicators, you can change this timings as per your requirement. If
provided, you must take advantage of this function. Here is how ?

If you are looking for average loading rate for last say one hour or two hours, you
should set the time as one or two hours.

But if you want the current loading rate, the time should be set to 5 to 10 minutes.
You would ask why 5 to 10 minutes and why not 1 minute or 1 hour ?
If you set the time too less, any small fluctuation will give you wrong loading rate.
Also your loading rate will fluctuate all the time.

If you set the time too high, you will get the average rate for that time but that
might not be present rate. For example if you have set the time to 1 Hour, and you
stopped the cargo for 10 minutes. You would still get a rate averaged for last 1
hour which will not be your present rate.

2. Calculating constants with loadicator

Have your ever said or heard someone say something like, drafts on this
loadicator shows 10 cms less on aft and 20 cms more on forward ? I am sure you
must have.

These may sometimes be fixed errors, but many times these errors are variable
with different loading conditions. The only solution to it is to accurately enter
constants in loadicator.

Accurate constants doesnt only means accurate weights but also the longitudinal
(LCG) and vertical (VCG) position of the constants.

Calculating the constants manually isnt a rocket science but is still a tedious
process. Some of the loadicator has this functionality inbuilt.

Here is how constants in loadicator are calculated.

First you need to enter all known weights such as cargo, bunkers, ballast, lube oil,
fresh water etc in the loadicator. Make the constants zero in the loadicator.

Then go to constants calculation section of the lodicator and enter actual drafts (
six drafts, FWD port & stbd, Aft port & stbd and midship Port & stbd) as
accurately as possible.
 These drafts need to be visual drafts. If you cannot visually check six drafts, it is
important to check at least three drafts on one side and midship draft on the other
side. Ensure list is absolutely zero and enter the other drafts accordingly.

Next enter the seawater density. You need to physically measure the density of the
dock water by collecting the water sample. This is very important. If you are
conversant with the draft survey calculations you know how a slight change in
density can offset the value of your constants by a larger margin.

While taking the sample of dock water, you should take the sample from mid of
the seawater depth.

After entering all the values, click on calculate constants, and whoop. Loadicator
calculates weight as well as location (LCG and VCG) of constants you should
enter in the loadicator.

No more errors in the the loadicator drafts. What you get on loadicator is what you
will have in actual.

3. Shifting weights to get desired trim,

list or draft
This function of Loadicator would be useful if we need following

1. If we need to reduce/increase trim from present condition

2. If we need to bring the ship to upright condition by shifting cargo or ballast

3. If we need to reduce aft draft to certain level

As you know these are very common situations chief officer & Master find
themselves in. And then we shift the weights arbitrarily to bring the ship to desired
condition.

But most of the loadicators have this function where you can set the desired
condition (Like list to be zero or trim to be 1.5 m or both and choose the tanks
from where the weights can be adjusted. Rest will be done by the loadicator. It will
give you the final weights these tanks should have to bring the ship to desirable
condition.

For example, like on this loadicator, you need to go to Trim/heeling adjustment

from the main menu

You can set the desired trim or list and choose the tanks which you want to switch
weights. After choosing all this, you click on calculate
It will calculate the weight to transfer and will give you before/after summary of
these tanks to get your desired results.
4. Replacing ullage tables with
Loadicator
Did you know with some loadicators, you dont need to look at those ullage tables
any more ? You just enter the ullage of a particular tank in the loadicator and it will
give you volume that will match with your ullage table.

While all loadicators can give volumes for ullages, but not all matches with the
ullage tables. The reason can be any of the following
1) Some loadicators do not correct the ullage for the trim and list. These
loadicators give the volume at zero trim and zero list. If the ship has trim during
final calculation, you have to use ullage tables for volumes.

There are very few loadicators which can correct the volumes for trim and list. But
there are many ships where there are no trim & list correction to the volume or
ullage.

These are the ships which have the ullage port located at the center of the tank.
For example, see the image above. As you can see if the ullage port is located at
the center of the tank, there is no change in the ullage with change in trim. On
these ships, you can directly take the ullage from the loadicator.

Even if your loadicator doesnt correct the ullages for trim and list to give volume,
it is still possible that volumes from loadicator and ullage table match. This is
when in ullage tables, trim correction is applied on the ullage and not on the
volume.

For example if we look at ullage table in the image above, trim correction is
applied to the volumes. So say for 4 meter ullage with 1 meter stern trim, ullage
table will have the volume 2350.1 m3. But loadicator will show the volume as
2350.6 m3. So in this example, you cannot take volumes from loadicator for the
final calculations.
2) The difference in volumes for same ullage in loadicator and ullage table can also
be because of different reference point.The loadicator and ullage tables may be
based upon different reference points for measurement.

For example, see the image above. You will usually find this kind of image on the
front few pages of your ullage table.

The image is from actual ullage table of a ship. And as you can see the reference
for reading ullage in this ullage tables is the MMC (or UTI) read out point. But
your loadicator might be measuring the ullage from either the tank top (height B)
or from vapor lock (height B+H).

If that is the case, you cannot take volume from the loadicator for the ullages taken
by UTI or MMC.

5. Wedge calculation
Wedge calculation is done to calculate the volume of the cargo when cargo does
not extend to the entire surface of the tank.

There is considerable amount of calculation to calculate the volume by wedge

formula. But imagine if this can be automatically calculated by loadicator.
Many loadicator specially on crude oil tankers can calculate the volume by wedge
formula.
For example, see the image of a loadicator screen. In this you just need to enter the
variables and it will give you the volume of each tank calculated by the wedge
formula.

You can even get the wedge calculation sheet which you can save or print.
Conclusion
Loadicator has become an important instrument onboard. Gone are the days of
manually calculating compliance data related to cargo operation.

But most of the loadicators are designed to provide many functions, which are not
otherwise required as per legislations. Knowing and using these functions can ease
the life during cargo operations to a certain extent.

There are hundreds of approved makers for loading computer softwares. Each of
these offers something unique apart from the basic functions. Knowledge of these
add ons and using these can really ease life during during cargo operations to
certain extent.

Do you know any other add on functions that your loading computer offer ?