Dedicated Software News

Latest advances in digital technologies and faster, cheaper connectivity walk hand-in-hand as vessel owners of all sizes aim to cut fuel consumption, cut emissions and increase efficiencies. AST is aiming to do both, offering connectivity plus a suite of productivity solutions courtesy of its new Integrated Remote Asset Management System (IRAMS) solution, as CEO Andrew Peters explains.The maritime industry is often lamented as slow on the uptake of new technologies, but many of these boats and ships were born and raised in an analog society, designed to last up to 50 years.

Wärtsilä Voyage has launched its Smart Panoramic Edge Camera System (S.P.E.C.S), designed to enhance marine safety by providing 360 degree situational awareness, streamed directly to the bridge in real-time.In addition to eliminating blind spots with digital panoramic cameras located around the vessel, S.P.E.C.S can also provide a birds-eye view of the ship and its surroundings, which the developer notes is a significant advantage when docking. The system’s cameras provide a calibrated range grid around the vessel to give precise measurement of distances.

Shipping Company Groningen (SCG) has contracted offshore internet services provider Castor Marine to install its Global 4G Connectivity package on all 30 of its vessels. With this, the coasters will have a fast, global 4G-LTE internet connection for its crews. On its fleet, SCG offers its personnel a Crew Welfare Zone with free internet within the 12-mile (4G) zone. To realize this, SCG wanted a plug-and-play, cost-efficient system that is always operational and doesn’t interfere with the crew’s activities.To make this happen…

d’Amico Group will build a new fleet digital operating center in Rome, Italy that will help the dry cargo and tanker shipping company to boost efficiency and safety across its fleet through increased collection of performance details and data from its ships.The new center, which is being created through a partnership with RINA and Telemar, is part of the trend toward increasing digitalization within the maritime industry. In addition to providing d’Amico Group with intelligence about operations on which to base strategic business decisions and operational improvements…

Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri said it has signed through one of its subsidiaries an agreement for the acquisition of a stake in Isselnord, an Italian company operating in defense-related sectors and in the main industrial branches in the civil sector, specialized in logistic support engineering, maintenance and information technologies. The agreement was signed through Fincantieri’s company Delfi, created in 2008 in joint venture with Isselnord, charged with the development of logistic support engineering and maintenance activities related to orders in the naval sector. The initial transaction is for a majority stake in the company, with full takeover to be completed within a predetermined time frame, Fincantieri said.

The introduction of the IACS Common Structural Rules for Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers (CSR BC & OT) makes support from advanced rule calculation tools more important than ever. The latest releases of DNV GL’s integrated calculation tools Nauticus Hull and Sesam GeniE offer designers and yards increased calculation speed and efficiency in design, CSR BC & OT rule calculations and the approval process. “We were one of the first classification societies to integrate support for the common structural rules into our tools,” says Vebjørn J. Guttormsen, Head of Section Calculation Tools at DNV GL – Maritime. “Since then, our tools have been used successfully in many newbuilding projects by yards and designers, especially in Korea, China and Japan, and the new versions build on this experience.

UK-based Royston Diesel Power has secured funding support from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, for its flagship $2.2 million Managing Energy on Marine Vessels technology program. The program aims to develop a new system for whole-vessel energy monitoring and usage, ensuring on board systems are operating at optimum performance and within environmental best practice. The project is being conducted in collaboration with Newcastle University’s School of Marine Science &…

Press release - Italy-based classification society RINA has launched a series of new services and standards aimed at helping the growing global yacht industry to grow efficiencies and reduce its environmental footprint. The five new services being rolled out in the last quarter of 2015 are a Global Compliance certification for boats to show they meet both US and EU standards, a set of courses and certification for Marina Managers, Electromagnetic Interference & Hazard Evaluation…

Siem Offshore has chosen DNV GL’s Synergi Project to manage nine newbuilding projects. The software is used to optimize the collaboration between Siem Offshore and the yards and to keep control of building processes. Siem Offshore’s large newbuilding programme, with nine offshore vessels currently under construction, has led the company to acquire Synergi Project software. Synergi Project, a tailor-made solution for ship owners and shipyards, allows all involved parties to share completely up-to-date information for collaboration in ship design, ship building and aftermarket. “We are very positive to our experience with the implementation of Synergi Project,” says Jonny Oluf Hansen, Project Manager Newbuilding at Siem Offshore.

Raytheon Anschütz announced the recent contract award for its SMARTBLUE maritime situational awareness system on board two vessels being built in South Korea for a major oil and gas company. The two vessels will operate on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. For each vessel, Raytheon Anschütz will provide two 12ft X-band radars integrated with AIS to a SMARTBLUE sensor management pack. The pack will correlate the incoming data from the sensors and provide information locally through an operator workstation located in the vessel’s central control room.

In his speech at the PowerLogistics Asia 2013 conference this October, Per Thörnblom, Group Project Logistics Manager for the GAC Group will outline the key advantage that dedicated software brings to the planning of heavy lift projects, and how the smart application of technology facilitates the engineering of detailed solutions to ensure timely, safe and on-budget execution. Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) is emerging as a vital element in planning how to load and store complex shipments. Lashing calculations identify the best way to secure cargo on a vessel.

The ‘block’ which will contain the innovative new theater on Costa Luminosa. Work is proceeding at Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard on the construction of the Costa Luminosa, the next flagship of the Costa Cruises fleet. Two blocks have been laid in the building-graving dock; they weigh 444 and 280 tons and will constitute the “heart” of the ship’s theater. The new show lounge will have seating capacity of over 800 and be arranged as a huge amphitheater on three levels at the fore end of the liner.

Hinge-Ship is a patented concept designed to combine the advantages of both deep draft and shallow draft shipping within the confines of a single vessel. The concept, if proven viable, could help to further the mandate of shaving valuable time from the transportation of goods from "point A to point B," as it would literally eliminate the need for storage at transshipment points and the transfer of cargo to other vessels, and all of the time and cost inherent in both. The essence of the design is that the vessel is split on centerline, and provided with a hinge. This arrangement, according to its designer John H. Leary, P.E., of Leary Engineering in New Orleans…

Relying on experience from more than 4,000 Navi-Sailor installations around the world, Transas Marine has added a number of features to further enhance the functionality of its Navi-Sailor marine navigation systems. Transas' ongoing R&D efforts are primarily focused on expanded integration with other systems, in providing a wider range of data which can be displayed on the electronic chart screen; and development and improvement of chart plotting features and presentation. Seamless integration between navigational software and VDR provides for instantaneous display of all vessel parameters during the entire sailing duration. After the voyage, the information can provide exhaustive data.