Palvelut

ILS Oy – Consulting Naval Architects & Marine Engineers

We offer customer-oriented, straightforward, cost-effective ship design and consulting services with decades of experience

Our personnel is competent both in theory and in practice. We have a background in shipyards, engineering companies, classification societies, the Finnish Navy, machine workshops, and ships. All the work we do is part of our company’s DNA and heritage, which has been passed down from generation to generation during our more than 30 years of operation. Our know-how has become a remarkably versatile and extensive entity. Our starting point is that, alone or together with the help of our strategic partners, we can carry out high-quality design work related to all disciplines of ship design.

We are, above all, a reliable Naval Architect partner for our customers. Our ship owner customers trust that they can safely share their valuable experience and expertise with us, so that we can create the best possible technology together. Shipyards and other design offices also appreciate our professionalism and are ready to perform demanding and confidential technical tasks in cooperation with us.

Conceptual design

We carry out all phases of conceptual design with solid professionalism. Some thirty different vessels have been built based on our concepts. Our conceptual design expertise is based on extensive experience gained from the design and construction of countless ships and from the views of end users. The design process is always carried out in close interaction with the customer, as a partner who can be trusted in all situations.

Initial design is about the making of strategic level definitions. In a typical case, we plan the ship’s preliminary general arrangement and lines and prepare a weight estimate, hydrostatics, stability data and a performance estimate, and gather e.g., the choices made regarding the propulsion solution and the main components in the so-called outline design material. Our experience creates for the customer security and assurance that the project will go in the right direction both technically and financially from the beginning.

We can do initial design in a wide variety of scopes – if necessary, it can even be a relatively narrow material, the kind we call a marketing concept. We are used to delivering initial design materials of various scopes, for example, to ship owner customers for participating in tenders for ship services. Our initial design customer can also be a shipyard, with which, as a subcontractor or as a joint venture partner, we participate in a tender for ship design and ship construction organized by the ship owner.

In the initial design, along with the technical material, important things are the illustration of the ship’s functionality and the visual marketing aspects of both the planned ship itself and its presentation. From the beginning, we also prepare a 3D model of the vessel concept, which can even be used to make photorealistic observation images if necessary.

Tender design is a broader set of conceptual design materials, which we typically prepare after our ship owner client has won a tender for the organization of ship services and when preparing to bid for construction yards. The tender design includes all the material on the basis of which the shipyards can offer to build the ship.

Contract design is drawn up after choosing the construction yard. We turn the so-called outline material prepared in the initial and tender planning phases into contract material based on contract negotiations.

In all stages of concept design, we make our extensive knowledge of the shipbuilding industry available to our customers.

Classification design, detailed design, calculation services

In newbuilding projects, we can offer our customers the entire classification design package or a certain limited entity. In many cases, shipyards give us a classification design assignment after concluding a shipbuilding contract, which is based on our concept material. We also get all the necessary approvals from the classification society in for major conversion designs, as well as other modification and repair designs. We have experience working with most classification societies.

Our expertise in hull and deck outfitting as well as machinery and pipe classification design is very high quality and up-to-date. We have continuously done these works as the main contractor in various scopes.

We have made the entire detailed design material for some small and mid-size vessels. If necessary, we can also conduct more limited scope detailed, structural and assembly design. We integrate state-of-the-art 3D design into these works.

As part of the basic or detailed design material, or also as separate assignments, we can perform FEM calculations and prepare FE analyses. We are also ready to carry out torsional vibration calculations.

Consulting, research and product development, testing and measurement services

We offer consulting and research services related to ship design and technology as well as shipbuilding with solid experience. In addition to practical experience, our work is based on strong scientific knowledge and expertise. Our customers value us as an independent and objective operator.

Our consulting assignments are often related to ice technology. We do a lot of concept evaluations of icebreakers and ice-classed ships, for example. We analyze the concept’s lines, bow and stern, machinery and propulsion solution and other strategic features, and prepare a report based on our findings, in which we make suggestions for changes if necessary. Evaluations may not only be related to the design phase of newbuildings, but also to planned changes to the operation profiles and/or operating areas of already existing vessels and the modifications they may require.

We can act as consultants for both ship owners and shipyards in shipbuilding projects.

Our consulting service also includes the design of test programs for open water and ice model tests and the analysis of test results with decades of experience. We have good views of model test facilities in different countries, and we can help our customers choose a facility that suits their needs.

Our consulting services also include inspection, evaluation and commenting of design materials.

We also carry out, for example, feasibility studies, ship acquisition and life cycle cost estimates, comparison studies of main components, investigations related to classification issues, and various field tests and measurements, such as inclining experiments and bollard pull tests, as well as full-scale trials to e.g. verify the ice performance of ships or the escort characteristics of tugboats.

During the last two years, we have done numerous consulting assignments for shipping companies, shipyards and design offices both in Finland and abroad.

Repair, modification and conversion design, life cycle updates

We carry out all ship repair, modification and conversion designs as well as lifecycle updates quickly and professionally. We are used to conducting the conceptual design of the projects, as well as the full classification material and detailed design.

Recently, we have done, for example, several modification designs for ferry ship ramps, marine survey vessel double bottom repair design, icebreaker aft deck wire guide modification design, icebreaker gangway installation design, icebreaker towing fork modification design, icebreaker fuel pump support design, ferry fire pump suction line troubleshooting, and design work requiring replacement of the ferry’s main engines, propulsion equipment and wheelhouse.

One of our latest conversion projects has been the conversion of the navy’s former flagship Pohjanmaa into a marine survey vessel for civilian use. The renovated ship was named Pohjanmeri (North Sea). We have also done, for example, the conversion designs for all three Seili-class ships, the concept design for the overhaul of the marine research vessel Aranda, and the life-cycle upgrade design for three Pansio-class minesweepers. At the end of 2020, we designed a former border guard ship, the Merikarhu, as a school ship for the maritime training institute.