Damen Marine Components supplies smar t dock winches

E v i d e n c e o f t h e c o r r e c t f u n c t i o n i n g o f t h e innovative dock winches developed by Damen Marine Components (DMC) was provided during the controlled t owage of the huge cruise ship

E m e r a l d P r i n c e s s i n t h e d o c k o f D a m e n Shiprepair Rott erdam on 11t h Oct ober The winches were specially developed for this 405 metre-long and 90 metre-wide ship dock A ver y smar t int erplay of four winches ensures a ship is pulled in smoothly and in a controlled manner under all circumst ances.

The four winches provide 40 tons of pulling power per winch There is a winch at each corner of the dock. Two winches pull a ship in and the two others at the ‘entrance’ of the dock control the speed and position of the ship by providing the exact amount of counter force required The winch system is controlled by a central computer. This winch system is power ful enough to pull any floating object into a dock Floating objects require relatively little force to be towed, but a tall ship such as the Emerald Princess can catch a lot of wind and create large forces that must be controlled by the winches

DMC’s winch system continuously measures the force applied to the ropes and automatically regulates a constant tension While two winches pull the ship in, the other two ensure this is done in a controlled manner and that the ship cannot move sideways or drift in too quickly As these winches slowly spin, energy is recovered and then utilised by the towing winches The winches can place a ship or another maritime object in the dock under their own power or do this in combination with tugboats

The Emerald Princess is 290 metres long and 36 metres wide The first real operation of the dock winches developed by DMC went beyond expectations Electrical engineers from DMC Dynamics and the engineering depar tment that develops the physical construction of the winches worked closely together www.damen.com

DMC supplies a wide range of ship systems such as rudders, steering gear, nozzles, plus advanced winches such as anchor and towing winches For specific projects, winches are developed completely according to the customer’s wishes DMC Dynamics provides sophisticated software for controlling the electrical systems, for the systems that are developed within Damen Shipyards Group, but also for external customers With an experienced engineering depar tment in the Netherlands and two production locations in Poland and China, DMC takes care of the complete production process.

MacGregor has been select ed t o supply RoRo equipment for two 8000 LM RoRo vessels built by Hyundai Mipo Doc kyard (HMD) in South Korea for Cobelfret CLdN , Luxembourg.

The order is booked into Cargotec’s first quar ter 2023 orders received The first vessel is scheduled to be delivered to the owner by the end of the four th quar ter of 2024, and the second vessel in the second quar ter of 2025

Coberlfret CLdN’s new RoRo vessels are designed for shor tsea connections and will operate in Nor thern and Western Europe routes The order consists of design and complete hardware including stern ramps, ramp covers and hoistable car decks, access ramps, and rampway doors In addition, MacGregor engineers will provide suppor t and super vision during the installation

The order was trusted to MacGregor thanks to its long-term relationships with Cobelfret CLdN and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Another impor tant reason for the customer to choose MacGregor as the supplier was its strong local presence in South Korea enabling effective and professional capabilities of solving challenges during the project contracting period Also, MacGregor’s aftersales strong offering was a positive factor in customers’ decisionmaking

Gar y Walker, COO Shipping at CLdN, commented: “We are pleased to continue our collaboration with MacGregor for our latest new building projects at HMD We chose MacGregor as the supplier for the RoRo equipment due to the quality of their products, their extensive experience, and their track record of successfully delivering projects Together we have been able to design an efficient and flexible cargo layout that will assist CLdN in fulfilling our ambitions as one of the leading shor t sea RoRo operators in Nor thern and Western Europe ”

Magnus Sjöberg, Senior Vice President, Merchant Solutions, MacGregor added: “I am ver y proud of the relationship that we have established with both CLdN and HMD and of our team succeeding in delivering previous and ongoing projects Due to those successes, we were able to secure yet another order We are determined to be a reliable par tner with our deliver y process and build our relationship even fur ther We are ver y glad to suppor t CLdN’s sustainable and reliable shor t-sea operations with our RoRo equipment ” www macgregor com