Cylinder oil monitoring plays a crucial role in ensuring efficient and reliable engine operation, especially on large vessels where lubrication oil represents one of the highest running costs after fuel. Accurate monitoring enables ship operators to track actual oil consumption in real time, reduce waste, and detect anomalies early—preventing unnecessary wear, damage, or excessive operational costs. Traditional methods such as tank level readings and flow meters often fall short due to sensitivity to vibrations and flow variations, making real-time, precise monitoring solutions more essential than ever. With the right system in place, operators can make informed decisions, optimize lubrication, and improve overall engine performance.
The SEA-Mate Real-time Cylinder Oil Consumption Monitoring System (COM) can measure actual cylinder oil consumption with an accuracy of within 0.5% in 10-minute intervals.
Engine lubrication oil is usually the highest running cost onboard a ship excluding the fuel.
Knowing actual cylinder oil consumption at a given engine load and time, would make it
possible to detect significant deviations from calculated consumption.
Today’s cylinder oil consumption figures are calculated estimates, tank level readings or
flow meter measurements. Years of operation with mechanical- and mass-flowmeters has shown they are very sensitive towards flow pulses and vibration. Todays solutions for measurement also makes it difficult to identify actual consumption at a given engine load.
Experience shows, that estimate or measured results often deviate from actual yearly consumptions, leading to cost exceeding estimates.
The SEA-Mate Real-time Cylinder Oil Consumption Monitoring System (COM) makes it possible to measure actual consumption in 10-minute intervals.
It is a cost-efficient system that makes it possible to verify that the lubrication system supplies the anticipated volume of cylinder oil at given engine load.
The accuracy of the SEA-Mate system is within 0.5 %, and the simple to use and maintain system is not affected by pulsation, vibration or other parameters affecting readout from traditional flow meters.
The system is the perfect online companion when optimizing lubrication, as well as for general lubrication troubleshooting.
The system is compatible with known lubrication systems regardless of engine make and model.
The system has successfully been tested on-board the vessel Maersk Luz, equipped with a MAN B&W 9S90 ME-C main engine.