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Rapp Hydema Logs New Orders Rapp Hydema AS recently won an order for a suite of electric winches—including oceanographic, hydro- graphic, CTD and other devices, plus control systems— for the new South African Research Vessel. The South African Department of Environmental Affairs is to be owner and operator of this polar research vessel, with op- erations chiefly planned for the Antarctic region. The shipyard STX Finland Oy selected Rapp, and the vessel is to be built at the STX yard in Rauma, Finland. “We were fortunate to have worked previously with South African Department of Environmental Affairs some years back,” said Tore Torrissen, Marketing Manager at Rapp AS in Bodo, Norway. “We had developed close working-together relationships with them, when we de- livered the research winch package to the R/V Ellen Khuzwayo that was built at Farocean Marine in Cape Town (now Damen, South Africa). Despite the worldwide economic downturn, the South Africa order coincides with an increasing production load at Rapp. Within just two weeks of the South Africa order, Rapp’s U.S. effort captured a similarly-sized suite of research winches for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. This order from the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Associa- tion (NOAA) both include deck machinery packages sim- ilar to the South African order. Rapp will be delivering the South African deck machinery in summer 2011. Palfinger Expands Marine Business The Palfinger Group is acquiring the marine crane divi- sion of Palfinger systems GmbH, expanding its marine portfolio. The business acquired from Palfinger Systems GmbH, which is controlled by the Palfinger family, gen- erated revenues of almost EUR 30m in 2009. When tak- ing over NDM, a Dutch manufacturer of davits and deck equipment, in July 2010, Palfinger announced its inten- tion to expand its marine crane business. The market of marine cranes recorded a slump in 2009 but has been showing a distinct recovery in the current financial year. The offshore wind power business is a promising market with great future, suggesting exceptionally high growth rates for the years to come. Samson Proves Heavy-Lift Slings Samson recently completed testing on high-perfor- mance synthetic rope slings, resulting in a greater under- standing of the critical elements that affect sling performance in a variety of configurations. The Samson R&D team has applied this knowledge to the development of a software application to help clients determine the best synthetic sling for their heavy-lift operation. This success has been demonstrated by the repeated use of the grom- met-type sling in the installation of 140 turbine foundation monopiles at the Greater Gabbard project of the North Sea. 100 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News DIRECTORY DECK MACHINERY Markey Delivers for Bisso, Oceaneering International Markey Machinery Company of Seattle, Washington recently delivered a model DEPCF-42 40HP Electric Render/Recover Winch to Eastern Shipbuilding for in- stallation on the new Bisso Offshore tug “Beverly B.” This hawser winch features capacity for 500 ft. of 8-in. soft-line, proven Render/Recover capability to 180 ft./min. line-speed and a brake that will hold 150 tons. All electric controls and a line-tension display system with data-logging rounds out the system. A Markey type CEW-60 2-Speed Electric Capstan on the stern is pro- vided for general line-handling. The Beverly B. is a 96- ft. x 4200-hp x 50-ton bollard-pull ASD tug. Shipment of Electric Anchor/Mooring Winch Markey Machinery completed shipment of the first two WECDF-20 125HP Electric Anchor/Mooring Winches for the Oceaneering International of Houston, TX, new 130-ft. Diving Support Vessel. Each winch carries 6,000 ft. of 1.25-in. wire rope and is powered by a AC-Variable Frequency drive system outfitted with Markey’s Ren- der/Recover technology to provide control of the vessel in a four-point mooring system. A single control station for all four winches provides the operator with the abil- ity to position / reposition the vessel with the simple movement of a joystick. A new feature integrated into these winches is a multi-disc brake in place of a conventional band-brake, to provide standard braking service and for control during emergency anchor deployments. Markey’s extensive use of finite-element analysis to design the structure resulted in a total weight of less than 30,000 lbs.
