Engineering Building News

AEGIR-Marine has announced a new office in Dubai, UAE. The maritime stern tube seal and propulsion system service provider will now operate out of offices in the Netherlands, Singapore, Shanghai, Namibia, USA and UAE. The Dubai service team will focus its activities on both the strong Middle East oil and gas industry in addition to the company’s core business of commercial vessels.“In terms of stern tube seal and propulsion system service and parts, we are filling the gap between equipment makers and maritime service providers. This strategy resulted in a significant increase in service work and sales of parts in the Middle East,” says Serge Lapré…

One-on-one with Suzanne Beckstoffer, an accomplished engineering leader and business woman, the first woman president in SNAME’s 125 year history.As the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2018, it will celebrate another historical milestone at the start of 2019 when Suzanne M. Beckstoffer takes the helm of SNAME as president, the first woman to hold this position in the association’s history. We met recently with Beckstoffer to discuss her distinguished shipbuilding career…

SMIT Salvage has acquired two five-year marine salvage contracts to serve as the exclusive marine salvage and engineering support contractor for the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), the division of the U.S. Navy responsible for engineering, building, buying and maintaining Navy ships and submarines.The Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. subsidiary will provide the U.S. Navy with marine salvage, salvage-related towing, ocean engineering and towage services in the event of an emergency or incident in two of the three geographic zones in the world as defined by the U.S. Navy.SMIT Salvage held a contract for one zone covering the area between the Suez Canal and the international date line for a number of periods totaling more than 30 years, which it was able to renew.

The proliferation of increasingly sophisticated and realistic maritime simulation facilities is taking the market by storm, with investment globally to train new and old mariners alike to exacting new standards. “Simulation technology has continued on a more or less steadily upward trajectory over the last ten years,” said Sam Pecota, Director of Simulation, California Maritime Academy, “The clarity and fidelity of our current full mission simulators is significantly superior to that which was possible at the turn of the century.

Static load testing is an essential part of many engineering, building and manufacturing businesses – and the shipping, marine and offshore industry is no exception. Water filled weights (also known as ballast bags) provide a flexible method for load testing. Test weights must be sufficiently heavy to ascertain the maximum load of an object, but they should also be reusable and safe to deploy in a test environment. Where there is easy access to a plentiful supply of water, water-filled weights can provide a quick, efficient means to undertake such testing.

Wärtsilä to donate diesel engine and equipment to SUNY Maritime College Engineering Department; Donation valued at $1 million. Wärtsilä, the marine industry’s leading solutions provider, will donate the main components of a hybrid diesel propulsion system to the Engineering Department at State University of New York Maritime College. The unveiling ceremony on October 12, 2011 serves as the official dedication and opening of the Wärtsilä Lab, housed in Marvin Tode Hall, science and engineering building on the SUNY Maritime campus, the Bronx, New York City.

At 8:00 am, on Groundhog Day, Wednesday, February 2, 2011, Maritime College will kick-off the 6th annual Groundhog Day Event, Conference on Cutting Edge Issues in Shipping. Admission is free and open to all interested in the business of shipping. The event will take place in the lecture hall of the Science and Engineering Building, Maritime College campus, Throgs Neck, The Bronx, NY 10465. The day begins with a complimentary continental breakfast, registration and welcome. The event will be hosted and directed by co-chairs SUNY Maritime College professor and maritime attorney, Jeffrey A. Weiss, as well as Professor Larry Howard, Chair of the College’s Global Business and Transportation department. Maritime Security will be the next maritime topic at 10:45 am.

Rolls-Royce announced an order to supply Bergen diesel engines for the Royal Netherlands Navy’s Joint Support Ship (JSS). The contract for the engineering, building and delivery of the vessel was signed late last year, by the Royal Netherlands Navy and Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) in Vlissingen, Netherlands. The vessel will be equipped with four Bergen B32:40V12A generator sets and one B32:40L6A, which will provide diesel electrical power and propulsion. Construction of the 672.5 ft ship will largely take place at Damen shipyard at Galati, Romania under the supervision of DSNS. Engineering, commissioning and testing will then take place in Vlissingen, and the ship is due to be delivered to the Royal Netherlands Navy in July 2014.

Few would argue with the notion that a healthy commercial marine industry needs new naval architects entering the business of designing and engineering ships and offshore structures. New naval architects bring new technology and a fresh way of looking at old problems. The University of New Orleans School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (NAME) produces a dozen or so people per year who have mastered this very difficult subject. At any given time UNO has about 145 people enrolled in the NAME program leading to a Bachelor's degree, the most students in any program of its kind. The school also offers Master's and Doctorate degrees in the field. There are currently 18 students in the MS program and three in the aspiring Ph.D candidates. The first Ph.D was graduated in May 2003.

Halter Marine, Inc., a subsidiary of Halter Marine Group, Inc., and Empresa Nacional Bazan de C.N.M., S.A., of Madrid, Spain, have formed Halter-Bazan, a joint venture to build Bazan-designed aluminum passenger/vehicle fast ferries at a Halter facility in the U.S. of an "Alhambra" Class fast ferry. Construction for an undisclosed customer is expected to begin in February 1999 on a 410 ft., 1,250 passenger/240 vehicle, diesel/waterjet, 40-knot monohull ferry. Completion is planned by year-end 2000. Halter-Bazan is negotiating an option for a second similar ferry for the same European operator. Bazan-built "Mestral" and "Alhambra" Class ferries are now operating on routes in Europe and South America.