3 Definitions
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - International Codes - Code on Alerts and Indicators, 2009 - 3 Definitions

3 Definitions

  3.1 Alert. Alerts announce abnormal situations and conditions requiring attention. Alerts are divided in four priorities: emergency alarms, alarms, warnings and cautions.

  • .1 Emergency alarm. An alarm which indicates that immediate danger to human life or to the ship and its machinery exists and that immediate action should be taken.

  • .2 Alarm. An alarm is a high priority of an alert. Condition requiring immediate attention and action, to maintain the safe navigation and operation of the ship.

  • .3 Warning. Condition requiring no immediate attention or action. Warnings are presented for precautionary reasons to bring awareness of changed conditions which are not immediately hazardous, but may become so if no action is taken.

  • .4 Caution. Lowest priority of an alert. Awareness of a condition which does not warrant an alarm or warning condition, but still requires attention out of the ordinary consideration of the situation or of given information.

  3.2 The following alerts are classified as emergency alarms:

  • .1 General emergency alarm. An alarm given in the case of an emergency to all persons on board summoning passengers and crew to assembly stations.

  • .2 Fire alarm. An alarm to summon the crew in the case of fire.

  • .3 Water ingress detection main alarm. An alarm given when the water level reaches the main alarm level in cargo holds or other spaces on bulk carriers or single hold cargo ships.

  • .4 Those alerts giving warning of immediate personnel hazard, including:

    • .1 Fire-extinguishing pre-discharge alarm. An alarm warning of the imminent release of fire-extinguishing medium into a space.

    • .2 Power-operated sliding watertight door closing alarm. An alarm required by SOLAS regulation II-1/15.7.1.6, warning of the closing of a power-operated sliding watertight door.

  • .5 For special ships (e.g., high-speed craft), additional alarms may be classified as emergency alarms in addition to the ones defined above.

  3.3 The following alerts are classified as alarms:

  • .1 Machinery alarm. An alarm which indicates a malfunction or other abnormal condition of the machinery and electrical installations.

  • .2 Steering gear alarm. An alarm which indicates a malfunction or other abnormal condition of the steering gear system, e.g., overload alarm, phase failure alarm, no-voltage alarm and hydraulic oil tank low-level alarm.

  • .3 Control system fault alarm. An alarm which indicates a failure of an automatic or remote control system, e.g., the navigation bridge propulsion control failure alarm.

  • .4 Bilge alarm. An alarm which indicates an abnormally high level of bilge water.

  • .5 Water ingress detection pre-alarm. An alarm given when the water level reaches a lower level in cargo holds or other spaces on bulk carriers or single hold cargo ships.

  • .6 Engineers’ alarm. An alarm to be operated from the engine control room or at the manoeuvring platform, as appropriate, to alert personnel in the engineers’ accommodation that assistance is needed in the engine-room.

  • .7 Personnel alarm. An alarm to confirm the safety of the engineer on duty when alone in the machinery spaces.

  • .8 Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm System (BNWAS). Second and third stage remote audible alarm as required by resolution MSC.128(75).

  • .9 Fire detection alarm. An alarm to alert the crew in the onboard safety centre, the continuously manned central control station, the navigation bridge or main fire control station or elsewhere that a fire has been detected.

  • .10 Fixed local application fire-extinguishing system activation alarm. An alarm to alert the crew that the system has been discharged, with indication of the section activated.

  • .11 Alarms indicating faults in alert management or detection systems or loss of their power supplies.

  • .12 Cargo alarm. An alarm which indicates abnormal conditions originating in cargo, or in systems for the preservation or safety of cargo.

  • .13 Gas detection alarm. An alarm which indicates that gas has been detected.

  • .14 Power-operated watertight door fault alarms. Alarms which indicate low level in hydraulic fluid reservoirs, low gas pressure or loss of stored energy in hydraulic accumulators, and loss of electrical power supply for power-operated sliding watertight doors.

  • .15 Navigation-related alarms as specified in the Revised Performance Standards for Integrated Navigation Systems (INS) (resolution MSC.252(83), appendix 5).

  • .16 For special ships (e.g., high-speed craft), additional alerts may be classified as alarms in addition to the ones defined above.

  3.4 Indicator. Visual indication giving information about the condition of a system or equipment.

  3.5 Signal. Audible indication giving information about the condition of a system or equipment.

  3.6 Required alert or indicator. An alert or indicator required by IMO instruments referred to in paragraph 1.1. Any other alerts and indicators are referred to in this Code as non-required alerts or indicators.

  3.7 Call. The request for contact, assistance and/or action from an individual to another person or group of persons, i.e. the complete procedure of signalling and indicating this request.

  3.8 Silence. Manual stopping of an audible signal.

  3.9 Acknowledge. Manual response to the receipt of an alert or call.

  3.10 Aggregation. Combination of individual alerts to provide one alert (one alert represents many individual alerts), e.g., imminent slowdown or shutdown of the propulsion system alarm at the navigation bridge.

  3.11 Grouping is a generic term meaning the arrangement of individual alerts on alert panels or individual indicators on indicating panels, e.g., steering gear alerts at the workstation for navigating and manoeuvring on the navigation bridge, or door indicators on a watertight door position indicating panel at the workstation for safety on the navigation bridge.

  3.12 Prioritization/Priority. The ordering of alerts in terms of their severity, function, sequence, etc.

Parent topic: Code on Alerts and Indicators, 2009
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