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April 2011 www.marinelink.com 29 the project get done on time? Will there be unforeseen delays and/or costs? Will it work as designed? Will it be reliable? If a system goes down, how long will it take to bring it back up? Ultimately," he adds, "these risk can translate into loss of our clients’ money, damage to their own rep- utations for delivery and execution, and in some cases, even people’s lives. "Siemens is structured in such a way to allow RAACI the flexibility to work at the project design level where careful in- tegration must take place; the technical support that Siemens provides early on in the design phase of a project is invaluable to us," said Mr. Robichaux. Backed by a broad portfolio: RAACI is located west of New Orleans, in the heart of the Gulf’s shipbuilding country. Col- lectively, its key people have more than 100 years of experience in providing electrical and automation systems. Both Mr. and Mrs. Robichaux agree that their business depends not only on that experi- ence, but also having access to a broad portfolio of electrical and automation components. "While all of our jobs are custom," Mrs. Robichaux says, "their maritime nature demands that every RAACI system is built to the most exacting requirements for vibration, size and weight, rugged- ness, reliability and serviceability." Mr. Robichaux says that’s why RAACI chose to become a registered Siemens Systems Integrator partner. "The broad Siemens portfolio of electrical and au- tomation devices as well as drives, circuit breakers and other components, gives us multiple advantages that we in turn bring our clients," he explains. "One is that each Siemens product family has a wide spectrum of sizes and capabilities, so when we have to design into tight spaces, we can do so. Another is the quality of Siemens engineering and manufacturing translates into ironclad reliability." To illustrate the portfolio’s breadth, he points to the 6,500- point I/O control sys- tem for USNS Seay, which uses the Siemens S7-417H Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), its most powerful. "With the Siemens S7-417H PLC, we were able to incorporate eight different control systems into two redundant PLCs, replacing 14 proprietary single- board computer systems." GREEN WATERS AHEAD Mr. Robichaux adds that Siemens line of Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs), which come in a wide variety of sizes, both air-cooled and water-cooled, helps RAACI design energy-savings and a longer operational life into their drive system design. "Siemens VFDs allow motors to run at optimal speeds for vary- ing demands placed on them," he says. "So instead of operating at maximum output for a less-than-maximum require- ment, a VFD will match motor speed with the need. This not only saves energy and fuel, it also helps prolong the life of the motor." In fact, RAACI is using Siemens SINAMICS S-120 Active Front End water-cooled VFDs for the twin 2,400 HP propulsion motors and the 536 hp bow thruster in Montco Offshore’s huge lift boat. "These motors are as ex- pensive as they’re big," Mrs. Robichaux says. "The VFDs will help Montco save on fuel costs and on maintenance and pe- riodic overhauls. What dwarfs these costs, however, is the costly down time that’d be required for major maintenance. With day rates of $100,000 or more, it gets expensive fast."
