Oh, I just thought of a little note I got from a friend the other day. It was about “Danfoss” parts. He was asking why at times it was so difficult to locate Danfoss parts. He had just gone through a whole day looking for a pressure switch. Mind you, the one he was looking for was probably a old one that had been in use for some time. Anyhow, he had a partial number, a serial number, rating in bar, differential in bar, voltage and size of connections.

You would think he said, that a company as large as “Danfoss” would have a way of tracking old serial numbers on these things. After speaking with a “Danfoss Technical Rep” they came to a conclusion the old part would be replaced with a model that was fairly close in the ratings. After this process he was asking for a way of getting the part and was told by the distributor that getting parts from “Danfoss” sent out the same day was next to impossible. Delivery could be up to 10 working days. Back to square one he said, just about ready to give up.

I know from personal experience that it can be hard at times to locate these various parts that you would need on a ship.

One rule of thumb that a chief engineer should always remember when ordering parts is that the person he is communicating with ashore has to be provided with all possible information. What seem easy and “Standard” to you onboard might not be so in the hands of a purchasing officer ashore. The contactor looks very simple and standard in your hands but don’t forget that the person ashore doesn’t have the part in his/her hands.

Today with communication being as it is with e-mail etc. there should be no problems for you to attach a digital photo of the part. The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is so true.

Now comes the tricky part, deciding on a replacement part!