PRESS RELEASE
December 23, 1996
Worldwide maritime data moves towards single ISO standard

The global maritime sector is moving towards a standardization of all computerized data, following the automotive and aerospace industries in the same direction. Through a three-year development project, the Det Norske Veritas (DNV) classification society aims to consolidate all the ship-related data it gathers worldwide by using the ISO STEP standard. An Express-based product from Norway’s EPM Technology was selected as a key tool in achieving this goal.

DNV has engineers working at yards around the world monitoring all phases of shipbuilding. The society’s offices worldwide also track ship operation for continuous evaluation, and therefore process huge amounts of data. ”We cover two phases of vessels’ life cycles,” says Jochen Haenisch in the Division for Technology and Products. ”Our imported data ranges from input for ship approval — such as hull shapes — to operational data for measuring machine performance.”

Will glue the applications together
The ISO 10303-STEP standard allows CAD/CAM, CAE and a range of other data to be exchanged between systems from different software suppliers. After evaluating a number of different STEP development tools, DNV chose EPM’s Express Data Manager after many months of testing because it was found to provide the required functionality, according to Mr Haenisch. ”The database provided in this system was particularly relevant, because we see archiving as very important in the future,” He says. ”It’s also very useful during testing. The total solution seems to have what we need.”

Many Applications
In the near future DNV may extend its scope of operations to include the construction of floating production units for the offshore oil and gas industry as well as ships. ”We’re integrating all our applications into one system called Nauticus,” explains Mr Haenisch. ”This will be installed in our offices worldwide. STEP will then enable us to communicate electronically with our clients — yards, owners and ship management companies — and to analyze their computer-based data relating to both newbuildings and operations.”
The STEP standard is increasingly gaining ground in other new areas as well, with applications now being used in fields as far apart as oil and gas, purchasing and long-term archiving of pharmaceutical data./ins

For further information contact:
Kjell A Bengtsson, EPM Technology AS
Grenseveien 107, N-0663 Oslo
Norway
Phone: +47 22 64 90 65, Fax: +47 22 64 93 05
E-mail: info@epm-consult.no
Home page: http://www.nettinfo.no/jotne/epm-technology/