The US Navy's drive to upgrade its tugboat fleet to support naval ship movements and salvage is behind a wave of new orders for deck machinery for vessels constructed at US shipyards
MacGregor and JonRie InterTech have secured contracts for deck machinery on several US Navy tugs this year and in Q4 2018.
Gulf Island Shipyards has selected MacGregor to provide deck machinery for a T-ATSX-class vessel currently under construction for the US Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).
The T-ATSX, being built at Gulf Island’s Louisiana, US-based yard, is a towing, salvage and rescue vessel designed for worldwide naval service deployments including open-ocean towing, submarine rescue and salvage support operations. The class's design is based around those employed in commercial offshore towing vessels, and it will replace the T-ATF and T-ARS 50-class vessels the US Military's Sealift Command currently operates.
NAVSEA needs the vessel to have a minimum bollard pull rating of 118 tonnes. To meet this, MacGregor will provide a deck machinery package that includes a main towing and traction winch, offshore crane, Triplex shark jaws, towing and pop-up pins and a stern roller.
MacGregor’s vice president of advanced offshore solutions Høye Høyesen said “Our naval systems are developed from commercially proven designs that are extensively tested in operation.”
“Our naval systems are developed from commercially proven designs that are extensively tested in operation”
"They include proven performance characteristics, combined with innovative technology developed to meet today's needs for higher efficiency and lower environmental impact”.
The contract also covers crew training and integrated logistics support.
"Naval contracts require specialist service support," said Mr Høyesen. "We have a long history of offering integrated logistics support, which is essential for naval operations and influences equipment design decisions from a reliability and service perspective. We support navies with various logistic support modules to ensure that equipment is cost-effective and optimally available throughout its lifecycle."
The order was booked into Cargotec’s Q4 2018 order intake, with equipment planned for delivery during Q1 2020. The contract with Gulf Island Shipyard, a subsidiary of Gulf Island Fabrication Inc, includes an option for a further seven vessels.
Following on from successes in contract awards in 2018, JonRie InterTech has kicked off 2019 with orders for deck machinery on six more tugs. The New Jersey, US, headquartered company has secured orders to supply machinery to a new generation of shipyard tugs the US Navy has ordered.
Dakota Creek Industries is building these six YT-808-class tugs at its facility in Washington state to a Robert Allan Z-Tech 4500 design. These 27.5-m tugs will have total power of 2,690 kW and will be used for manoeuvring naval ships into port and docks.
According to JonRie InterTech president Brandon Durar this contract is a highlight of the company’s recent business. On the bow of each tug will be a JonRie Series 210 heavy duty hawser winch complete with JonRie’s standard render block. Mr Durar said these winches will have the capacity to spool 183 m of 18 cm hawser, a line pull of 9,070 kg, a line speed of 53 m/min and a brake capacity of 136,077 kg.
He added that on the stern of these YT-808 tugs, there will be a Series 421 heavy duty capstan with a 45,360 kg of bollard capacity. The capstan will have a line pull of almost 70,000 kg and a line speed of 9.1 m/min.
In the engineroom, there will be JonRie InterTech-designed and supplied hydraulic power unit, rated at 56 kW with a soft start and load sense system, plus controls and an electronic starter.
“To allow ease of trouble shooting, the controls will feature a message centre that will display any faults the system may have incurred”
“To allow ease of trouble shooting, the controls will feature a message centre that will display any faults the system may have incurred,” said Mr Durar. JonRie will also include a standard foot control system to allow the master to operate the winch with hands free operation.
JonRie has previously supplied the deck equipment for the Navy’s YT 802 and YT 800-class tugs.
In 2018, JonRie supplied hydraulic Tri-Winch on tugs built for Seabulk Towing. Master Boat Builders of Bayou La Batre, Alabama built the Rotortug vessels – Trident, Triton and Trinity – to a Robert Allan ART 80-98US-design. These have Tri-Winch hawser winch drums with capacity to spool 165 m of 20.3 cm hawser and a towing drum with capacity to spool 700 m of 58 mm line. All JonRie designs use a direct-drive Hagglunds hydraulic motor.
Icebreaking tugs require specialist equipment
Schoellhorn-Albrecht is supplying VFD windlasses and capstans for icebreaking tugs that will opperate in the St Lawrence Seaway (credit: Schoellhorn-Albrecht)
Schoellhorn-Albrecht has completed several noteworthy contracts in recent months.
In February 2019, the St Louis, Missouri-based company completed a contract to design, manufacture and supply deck machinery for icebreaking tugs that will work in the St Lawrence Seaway. This includes windlass and capstans with variable frequency drive (VFD).
These were supplied to an ice class, Z-drive tug St Lawrence Seaways is operating for icebreaking and ice-management services. This tug will also handle buoys, push buoy and gate lifter barges on the St Lawrence Seaway.
Schoellhorn-Albrecht supplied a vertical anchor windlass and through-deck capstan with a VFD control package, a right-angle drive gearbox, 15-kW marine duty motor and 45-cm diameter barrel.
The windlass was designed to ABS standards for a minimum design temperature of -32˚C. Testing and certification was witnessed by ABS at Schoellhorn-Albrecht’s facility in Missouri.
The controls to the deck equipment were enclosed in Nema 4 stainless steel units to protect them from ice during low-temperature operations.
In October 2018, the company completed a contract to design and manufacture a through-deck vertical capstan for the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ pusher tug Gelberman.
The capstan was designed and manufactured for the pusher, and is intended to operate in severe marine duty environments. It is powered by a two-speed 5HP motor and has a bollard pull rating of 22.68 tonnes.
In the same month, Schoellhorn-Albrecht produced two replacement hydraulic vertical anchor windlasses for TSV-4 Naragansett, a 1979-built tug in service with the US Navy’s sealift command.
The anchor windlasses are both driven by a dedicated hydraulic power unit (HPU) and hydraulic control circuit.
Both the windlasses and the HPU were retrofit replacements and had to be engineered to fit into space constraints from older units and also comply with American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) requirements.
Each windlass was constructed with a cast steel wildcat suitable for a 5.08-cm anchor chain, a manual band brake, a wildcat clutch, a 61-cm diameter warping head for mooring lines and a chain stripper. A 30HP axial-piston hydraulic motor is contained within the units, which provides a continuous chain pull of 12.47 tonnes at 0.1 metres per second. The warping head can deliver 13.49 tonnes of line pull at a line speed of 0.09 metres per second.
The HPUs power the vertical anchor windlass/capstan for each windlass with a 30-hp electric motor at 1,800 rpm. They are controlled remotely with electric-over-hydraulic push-button controls, allowing for variable speeds of the windlasses up to a maximum of 0.1 m per second. The HPUs can be started locally or remotely depending on whether the crew are undertaking maintenance or using it for anchoring or mooring. They were fabricated with custom 0.23 m3 reservoirs and a bolt-together skid, allowing the unit to fit through a 0.76 m2 hatch.
ABS inspected the anchor windlasses prior to delivery to Narragansett.
DMT supplied deck machinery to Delicay-series of tugs Sanmar shipyard in Turkey built for Svitzer. DMT delivered electric-driven winches for escort operations for Svitzer Meridian and Svitzer Vale.
These were built in 2018 to an adapted Robert Allan TRAktor 2500-SX design and to ABS class requirements for towing operations in northern Europe.
For Svitzer Meridian, DMT delivered type TW-021-E electric, double-drum towing winch for the aft working deck. This winch has a force of 250 kN at a low speed of 9 m/min, or 80 kN at a high speed of 28 m/min. It also has a brake-holding load of 190 tonnes.
DMT has also supplied deck machinery to a multipurpose tug built to a Damen design for a joint venture between Dutch Dredging and Iskes Towage & Salvage. Since its delivery in Q3 2018, Fregate has operated in ports in French Guiana.
This tug has an AK30 HE2 deck crane supplied by HS Marine with capacity of 2 tonnes at 9.2 m. Also on deck is a TWE-350KN electric-driven forward winch supplied by DMT. This has a double drum with one of these pulling 42-44 tonnes at a speed of 8 m/min or 14 tonnes at 24 m/min. Fregate also has an aft winch with a single split drum with Dyneema rope for lowering the dredging arm.
Ibercisa is working through a record number of deck machinery contracts this year as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. The company was formed in 1969 for designing, manufacturing and suppling machinery, initially for the Spanish fishing fleet. It has since expanded into international markets and the tug sector.
In 2018, Ibercisa was selected to supply deck machinery on tugs being built in Brazil by Detroit Brasil, Turkey by Sanmar and Uzmar shipbuilders, China by Cheoy Lee and by Damen worldwide.
For example, Ibercisa has supplied deck machinery to tugs built by Cheoy Lee in China and Hong Kong. This included double-drum escort towing winches for SST Grizzly and SST Orca tugs, which were brought into service by SAAM Smit Towage Canada. These winches have an active haul-in and pay-out constant tension system, and data logging to time when to replace the 72 mm diameter Amsteel Blue synthetic towlines.
For Detroit Brasil, Ibercisa is supplying equipment for eight tugboats under construction for the Starnav Serviços Marítimos fleet. The contract includes supplying a complete hydraulically-driven deck machinery package for each tug, including a forward escort towing winch, aft towing winch, capstans, chain stoppers and the hydraulic power packs. Delivery was scheduled to start in 2018, continuing through 2019 and 2020.
The 32-m long tugs from Cheoy Lee Shipyards will be operating in India, southeast Asia and other regions (credit: MacGregor)
MacGregor has been chosen to fulfil orders for deck machinery for four escort tugs and four harbour tugs from Hong Kong-based Cheoy Lee Shipyards Ltd.
The order scope includes compact and high-performance escort winches, anchor windlasses, towing winches, hydraulic power packs and power take-off systems. Delivery is planned on a rolling schedule, commencing in Q2 2019 and finishing in Q3 2019.
The 32-m long tugs will operate in India, southeast Asia and other regions, and the winches in the package have been especially designed to maximise vessel performance by minimising weight.
MacGregor’s senior manager of sales and marketing Terry Onn said “Our deck handling solution uses a simplified structural design to reduce winch weights and improve control panel construction.
"The reduced weight and dimensions of the winch deliver a 10% increase in vessel speed during forward tows, offering a considerable operational advantage to the customer."
MacGregor’s vice president for advanced offshore solutions said “We understand that detailed consideration of vessel operation and design is key to providing an optimum solution.
“For this reason, we work closely with ship designers and shipyards to provide solutions that fully meet customer requirements.”
The orders were booked into MacGregor’s parent company Cargotec's Q4 2018 order intake. MacGregor has a long relationship with Cheoy Lee Shipyards, supplying deck machinery for various vessels.
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