techNews The next evolution in tug design: ContainerTug
TGE Marine wins multiple contracts for LNG gas systems If TGE Marine Gas Engineering’s recent contracts indicate anything, its that the use of liquified natural gas (LNG) is gaining momentum. Earlier this year, TGE Marine signed a contract with Rolls-Royce Marine AS for the design and supply of the LNG fuel gas package for an oil tanker currently undergoing conversion. TGE will deliver two vacuum insulated LNG tanks, each 150 m 3, along with the gas processing equipment that will send the gas to the main engine.
Me a nw h i l e , M A N D i e s e l & Tu r b o awarded TGE Marine Gas Engineering GmbH with a contract to design and supply high- and low- pressure LNG fuel gas packages for two LNG-fueled Con-Ro vessels being built at VT Halter Marine, Pascagoula, MS, for Crowley Maritime Corporation. You can read more about this contract in our LNG story beginning on page 29. To date, TGE Marine has supplied handling and storage systems to more than 120 gas carriers. www.tge-marine.com
Good things come in small packages. With a length of just a little over six meters (its 6.06 m x 2.44 m x 1 m to be exact) the ContainerTug 600S—designed in collaboration with Dutch shipyard Ooninex Shipbuilding BV and naval architectural firm BEN3D BV, Duizendschoon, the Netherlands—can be transported in a standard 20-ft container. “Transportability is becoming increasingly important in a market where companies are forced to be flexible,” says BEN3D Director Ben de Vries. The tug features integrated container fittings at all corners making it stackable. It’s lightweight, aluminumfabricated wheelhouse top can be easily removed and stored in the aft deck—enabling the workboat to maintain its dimensions within container proportions and reduce the vessel’s air draft significantly. The tug features a large deck space, high-maneuverability capabilities and is powered by a Volvo Penta commonrail D5 engine. It also provides a 1.2 ton bollard pull ahead. The tug will travel at a service speed of six knots. www.containertug.com
Danelec’s VDR complies with new IMO standards Black boxes have taken center stage as a result of the disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370. The incident could well generate new standards for flight data recorders. In the shipping industry, we have the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR)—the equivalent of the black box—and come this July 1, 2014, new IMO VDR standards will go into effect. To comply with the new standard, Denmark’s Danelec Marine is rolling out the Danelec DM100, a third-generation marine VDR. The new Danelec DM100 VDR incorporates Danelec’s revolutionary SoftWare Advanced Protection (SWAP) technology —a totally new approach to shipboard servicing of marine electronics. SWAP “saves time by removing the repair from ship to shore, reduces labor costs for service calls, protects valuable shipboard data and eliminates in-port delays for repairs,” says Danelec CEO Hans Ottosen. Danelec designed the compact VDR data acquisition unit for easy plug-and-play replacement, with all system programming and configurations stored on a hot-swappable memory card. The service technicians bring a new unit when boarding the ship.
They simply disconnect and remove the old unit, insert the new one in its place and slide the memory card from the old VDR into the slot on the front of the replacement. The old unit can then be taken ashore for repair without holding up the ship’s departure. “This is a paradigm shift in shipboard service,” says Ottosen. “With traditional techniques, it can take days to make repairs to a ship’s critical electronic systems. In some cases, Port State Control authorities may hold up the ship’s sailing. Even if the ship is allowed to sail, it means another expensive service call at the next port to accomplish the repairs. With SWAP technology, the entire process is completed in hours, not days.” Ottosen says that the company will incorporate SWAP into all its products going forward. The Danelec DM100 VDR meets all the new VDR requirements as defined in MSC.333(90) and IEC 61996-1 Ed. 2, including a float-free capsule, 48-hour data storage in both the protective fixed capsule and float-free capsule, separate audio track for outdoor microphones, as well as
data recording from the ship’s ECDIS, both radars, AIS and inclinometer. “In addition to the minimum IMO requirements, we have designed our newgeneration VDRs for the future, with new features such as playback software for realtime monitoring and replay of recorded data, along with remote access for maintenance, annual performance tests and remote data capture and analysis,” says Ottosen. Danelec was one of the first companies to bring to market IMO-compliant VDRs and Simplified VDRs (S-VDRs) in 2002. More than 5,500 vessels today are equipped with a VDR or S-VDR designed and manufactured by Danelec. The company has an extensive service network within more than 50 countries worldwide. www.danelec-marine.com May 2014 MARINE LOG 37