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PCTC Pilot — Southeast Asia Mixed-Cargo Trade
By Field Engineering · April 10, 2026 · 6 min read
6,500-CEU pure car & truck carrier instrumented end-to-end across two decks. 90-day window, mixed ICE/EV cargo, monsoon-season sailings.
The pilot covered Decks 4 and 5 of a 6,500-CEU PCTC over a 90-day operating window with seven port calls. Cargo mix averaged 22% battery-electric vehicles with the remainder ICE and hybrid.
Deployment
- 3 working days alongside, vessel still loading.
- No hot work, no class-society deviation, no drydock.
- 1,184 sensor cells, 2 segment masters, 1 bridge console.
Result window
2
Confirmed early-warnings (both pre-smoke)
0
False alarms outside calibration phase
23 min
Average detection lead vs. ceiling smoke
"The first early-warning came in during a rolling sea state. We would not have known anything was happening on that deck for at least another 15 minutes."— Chief Officer (operator NDA)
What did not work first time
Initial cell-coherence thresholds suppressed two real events on a sun-exposed forward section. We retuned the suppression in week 3 and it has held since.