Basic Design

German engineering thoroughness, applied where it pays off: heat transmission, pressure drop across both air and water systems, and air exchange rates – calculated properly and checked against the existing energy, heating and chilled water systems. The result is a basic design that fits the real preconditions of the project and the requirements you actually operate under. The method does not change ashore; only the reference does, from a hull and its cargo to a building's fabric and its use profile.

Consulting

We help clients find technically sound and cost-efficient solutions for HVAC, refrigeration and sanitary systems – on vessels from livestock carriers to converter platforms, and in commercial, industrial and residential buildings ashore. The earlier we are involved, the more we can prevent: the costly errors in conversions, refurbishments and new builds are made in the first planning stages, not on site. Our advice is objective – including when the cheaper solution is the better one.

Conversion and new builds

We design and deliver air conditioning, heating, ventilation, refrigeration and sanitary systems matched to vessel, crew and cargo requirements – for livestock carriers, yachts, cruise liners, river cruise liners, commercial vessels, supply vessels and converter platforms. Ashore we deliver the same scope for new buildings and refurbishments, from the plant room to the last terminal unit. Newbuild or retrofit, our scope covers the complete building services package rather than a single trade.

Commissioning

Designing these systems ourselves tells us where to look when they are put into operation. We commission on board and in buildings, air-side and water-side: performance measurement, hydraulic balancing, control function testing, and hygiene acceptance of ventilation systems to VDI 6022. You receive complete commissioning records with measured values, not a signed checklist.

Documentation and training

A system is only as good as the ability of the people running it. We produce service manuals for the plant as built and train the crew on board or the operating staff on site, covering HVAC, refrigeration and sanitary installations including the hygiene requirements behind our VDI 6022 category A qualification. The same documentation supports compliance with international and national regulations – AMSA requirements for livestock carriers at sea, operator obligations for ventilation hygiene ashore.

Expertise and troubleshooting

A few degrees short on cooling. Less air pressure than the design promised. A riser that never gets warm. We find the cause – a control strategy working against itself, an unbalanced air distribution, a structural condition nobody accounted for, a component that never met its specification. It makes little difference whether the plant sits in a machinery space or a basement plant room: decades of design work mean we know where to look first. "We can feel the air", as one client put it.

Measuring

Reliable data is the basis for design, installation and fault-finding alike. We measure cooling and heating loads, pressures and hydraulic balance, air flows, and – a specialty of ours – ammonia concentrations in livestock transportation. Our entire team is certified to VDI 6022 category A, so hygiene inspections of ventilation and air conditioning systems are carried out and assessed in-house, with nothing subcontracted, on board and in buildings alike. Every job ends with a measurement report and documentation you can hand on.

Planning and detail design

We coordinate ducting and piping for the complete unit or building – air, chilled and heating water, refrigerant and sanitary – and produce the corresponding drawings, schedules and interface definitions for the other trades. Sound calculation is the basis of good detail design, but calculation alone does not get cooled air to the hot spots. Experience does. Under German building law this work is HOAI service phase 5, the execution design.

Project and interim management

Structured planning and control save time and money. We coordinate closely with the other trades – in shipbuilding and in building construction alike – which prevents errors, reduces effort and raises quality. Years of project work give us a clear picture of what tends to go wrong, so we identify trouble spots before they develop into problems. And when requirements change mid-construction, as they do, we treat it as part of the job: there is always a solution.

Site management

Marine construction sites have become more complex and more demanding, and building sites onshore are no different: sequencing, interfaces and trade coordination decide the schedule long before the technology does. Running a site efficiently depends on organisation as much as on engineering. We bring decades of engineering experience and the intercultural competence to work at yards and sites worldwide, for vessels and platforms of any type as well as for building projects.

Supervision

Supervision prevents mistakes before they turn into malfunctions – a single incorrect pipe joint can affect an entire project. We watch the detail while keeping the three main tasks in view: quality, progress of work and schedule.

Quality assurance and defect management

Whether the job is a conversion at a yard in Asia, a platform in the North Sea or a plant in a German building, the method does not change. We check the execution documents before the first pipe is routed, monitor the works against design, standards and contract, record defects, and follow their rectification through to acceptance and complete as-built documentation.

Under German building law, our quality assurance runs across two service phases. HOAI phase 5 is execution design, and therefore still planning: quality assurance here means reviewing and approving the contractors' shop and installation drawings against the design, closing the interfaces to the other trades, and settling buildability before anything is fabricated. HOAI phase 8 is site supervision: monitoring the works against design, standards and contract, recording defects, tracking their rectification, and taking the plant through acceptance with complete as-built documentation. We deliver both phases, and the quality assurance within them, to the same standard we apply on board.

Where a plant is already running but does not perform, the approach is the same: measure first, find the root cause, then fix it. A control strategy that fights itself, an unbalanced air distribution, a hydraulic circuit that starves its last riser, a component that never met its specification – we document what we find, we say what it will take, and we see it through.

Surveying

We provide expert opinions and survey reports to support your claims, based on measurement rather than assumption. More than 25 years of troubleshooting on vessels, platforms and in buildings stand behind them.