Avtron News

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Katmai Bay (WTGB-101), homeported in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, arrived at Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio, for drydocking, inspection, maintenance and repairs on July 8, 2015. The contract is for a scope of work that includes hull, propulsion and steering system inspections, as well as steel repairs, hull cleaning and painting. The 140-foot Bay-class Icebreaking Tug was hauled out on Monday, July 13 using the Shipyard’s 770-ton Marine Travelift – the largest on the Great Lakes.

Avtron upgrades T/S State of Michigan propulsion system with an Avtron ADD-32 Electric Drive System. The T/S State of Michigan is a 224 ft. ex-T-AGOS vessel currently used by the Great Lakes Maritime Academy (GLMA) as a training vessel. After serving as surveillance vessels for the U.S. Military through the 80s and 90s, many T-AGOS class ships have been reassigned for research and training purposes. The existing analog drive system was obsolete and unsupportable. As part of this project, the GLMA upgraded both the machinery monitoring alarm system and the electric drive propulsion system.

The U.S. Coast Guard recently awarded Avtron Industrial Automation a contract to upgrade the main propulsion system on its fleet of 9 WTGB Ice Breaking Tugs with the Avtron ADD-32 DMG Drive System. To date, Avtron has upgraded the electrical propulsion system for the Neah Bay in Cleveland, OH, the Bristol Bay in Detroit, MI, and now the Penobscot Bay in Bayonne, NJ. The WTGBs are 140’ diesel-electric vessels which operate on the Great Lakes and the Northeastern United States. The ice breaking mission of the vessels requires them to be operational at all times.