AVEVA joins OpenHCM Consortium

17 August 2011

Participation supports industry trend for 3D lifecycle management

Cambridge: AVEVA (LSE:AVV), a leader in engineering design and information management solutions for the plant, power and marine industries, today announced it has joined the OpenHCM (Hull Conditioning Monitoring) Consortium, an initiative to increase ship safety though transparent electronic processing of assessment data for the in-service operation of ships and offshore platforms.

The OpenHCM Consortium was formed to carry on the work started under the EC’s CAS projects to develop a neutral exchange standard. This is focused on improving the efficiency of the thickness measurement process on board ships already in service through a fully electronic process. The main consumers are shipyards, owners, classification societies and thickness measurement companies to exchange files and visualise as 3D models.

“AVEVA fully support the use of the 3D design model downstream in lifecycle activities and will actively participate in the development of the OpenHCM standard. Based on this standard, we are developing export functionality from AVEVA design applications, and the ability to read and visualise the condition data within our AVEVA NET information management system”, said David Thomson, Solution Strategy Manager, AVEVA. “AVEVA’S unique ability to idealise and filter the production model ensures that our customers’ IP will be protected. Using AVEVA, the information needed for further lifecycle activities can be safely handed over to ship operators and class societies without compromising security”.

The consortium’s initial members include: IACS classification societies Bureau Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, Dutch testing and inspection specialist Materiaal Metingen Europe and French robotics solutions provider Cybernétix. As members of the consortium AVEVA believes that it is in the interests of the maritime industry for OpenHCM to be widely used, in order to provide reliable and efficient, communication across all in-service operational processes. Following the completion of practical implementations, the OpenHCM proposal will be submitted to IACS and other regulatory bodies for approval as an industry standard. For more information visit http://openhcmstandard.sourceforge.net/.

AVEVA