Air casters ease 2000 ton launch: Derecktor Shipyards in the US used 42 air casters, basically air bearings, to move a 2000 ton yacht from build facility to dry-dock, with a turn. Notably, the company says that the system can be used to move large ship parts and barges. Yards are always needing to move big things around. Perhaps air bearings are the safest and quickest way to do it.
Ultrasonic anti-fouling for UK, Aussie navy: Basically, a number of transducers placed all over the inside of a hull create enough ultrasonic vibration to keep surfaces clean. Though the technology seems a peach for smaller, high maintenance craft, it would seem improbable for this one to make it over to larger ships - too much space to cover.
Wartsila with extensive service tie-up with Eidesvik: Wartsila has won a novel new service agreement with Eidesvik Offshore, whereby "supplier, owner and operator work together to minimize non-operational periods." To some owners, this is golden; get it all from one outfit: Wartsila. Soon they'll buy the ships out from under them. Wartsila's unique approach to maintenance and condition-based maintenance have been covered previously, here and here.
Wiring up reefers and locking in data: Fairplay brings news from Johnson Controls in Denmark, which offers enhanced monitoring of reefer containers en route, including real-time monitoring on land and at sea and remote operations like starting defrost and changing set point. All of the data, though, is apparently locked in to Johnson Controls' "Global Monitoring Server". For a pound of flesh more, they'll probably let you integrate that in your own ERP. In any event, just another drop in the river of data flowing ship to shore and back.
Digital Design and Manufacturing Technology Explains the Ins and Outs of CAD/CAM Technologies: Research and Markets, a global research company, will publish a book from a conference it held on CAD/CAM and manufacturing technology in China in April. Clearly, this was a topic that was hot for Chinese industry, as undoubtedly more and more people and companies are clamoring for ways to speed manufacturing and design processes.
General Dynamics to deliver new antennas for NOAA's GOES-R satellite: General Dynamics will design, manufacture and install a number of antennas to better track global weather patterns and other meteorological events. Basically, I would loosely categorize this under the "improved response to Katarina II" folder.
The Future of Propulsion: It seemed as if the future of everything else was already decided by one company or another. Now Voith has seized on the future of propulsion before Wartsila, MAN B&W or any of the others could grab it. It seems that the Voith Radial Propellors have finally found their ideal use, and it's on offshore maintenance vessels, a la cable-layers and wind power installation ships. They're going to present the future of propulsion at SMM (the future is now, apparently).
Anyone providing a useful piece of insight to these tech briefs (in other words, a decent comment) will be added to the 5956N leader-board. Whomever climbs to the top of this list is the king of maritime technology insight! Think your news belongs in this weekly update? Send me your news, plus (vitally) a note explaining why your news is actually significant, and I may just include it.
Comments