Machinery Solutions News

A new worldwide distributor deal signed between Yorkshire-based maritime diesel engine specialist Maktec Marine and Midlands headquartered lubricant giant Exol aims to catapult the U.K. lubricants manufacturer into the maritime industry. “Exol is a sleeping giant in the maritime sector,” said Mark Cornforth, owner of Maktec, a brand with 20 years of maritime industry experience. “Exol is flourishing in the industrial, automotive, agriculture and transport sectors but wants to ramp up activity in the shipping industry, which is Maktec’s specialist area.

Rolls-Royce. The words have been used by many to signify excellence – though not with the company’s permission, of course. Rolls-Royce Marine is taking a leading position in developing and introducing the systems and technologies needed for the running of a successful business in the maritime industry of the 21st century. At a company presentation held in London earlier this year, Mikael Mäkinen, President of Rolls-Royce Marine, outlined the company’s vision for the future and its strategies to put these new systems based on new technologies into place.

Leveraging its technical strengths in both engine design and electrical and automation (E&A) systems, Wärtsilä is launching a fully integrated hybrid power module combining engines, an energy storage system and power electronics optimized to work together through a newly developed energy management system (EMS). The Wärtsilä HY is the marine sector's first hybrid power module of this type, officially launched at the Nor-Shipping conference and exhibition in Oslo, Norway from May 30 to June 2, 2017.

Rapp’s workboat market offerings span the full range of operator requirements. Their latest contract provides a turnkey package. Long known for delivering innovative and custom deck machinery solutions to a wide range of marine stakeholders, Rapp Marine recently was tasked with providing not one, but two complete equipment package for West coast-based Harley Marine Services (HMS). The Rapp portfolio spans the full gamut of machinery, from heavy duty tow winches for high horsepower tugboats, all the way to multipurpose cranes for barges or other workboats.

At this year’s Offshore Energy exhibition, global deck machinery specialist ACE Winches announced a new 500te Linear Winch to its range of specialized deck equipment. The company will showcase its range of products and services supplied to European clients operating within marine, renewables and oil and gas sectors. In recent months ACE Winches has delivered equipment and services for a number of key projects for European based companies, worth over £1.4 million. These projects have varied in type…

Rolls-Royce signed a contract for the construction and delivery of an eight point mooring system to the world’s first offshore fish farm installation being developed for Ocean Farming AS, a subsidiary of the SalMar Group in Norway. The equipment will be used to secure the installation to the seabed at Frohavet, off the coast of central Norway. The 68 meter high rig will have a diameter of 110 meters and a volume of 250.000 cubic meters. SalMar decided to move the operation offshore in the plan for additional growth in the industry of harvesting from the sea…

ACE Winches has appointed Colin Black as chief commercial officer, a newly created board of management position. Black is responsible for leading and managing the firm’s overall commercial strategy and the management of the ACE Winch Academy. Colin Black stated: “ACE Winches has an enviable reputation as the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and market leader in deck machinery solutions, and with my operational background I fully understand the demands of an industry facing the challenges of low oil price.

Wärtsilä contracted to supply power systems of four modern diesel-electric tugs building for Australian owner Svitzer. The vessels are being built at the ASL shipyard in Singapore and are scheduled to be in operation by early 2014. Each of the four 80 Ton Bollard Pull (TBP) harbour tugs will be fitted with two 9-cylinder and one 8-cylinder in-line Wärtsilä 20 engines. The use of the Wärtsilä 20 engines as diesel-electric generating sets is a new development in the tugs market.

Wärtsilä, in conjunction with the Finnish research project SEATECH 2000+, has been developing some new machinery solutions for RoPax vessels. A promising concept is a semi-diesel electric machinery, where mechanical propulsion is combined with a diesel electric power plant. This new RoPax concept was presented for the first time at the Europort 2001 exhibition. The RoPax vessel has a semi-diesel electric machinery featuring a diesel mechanical part driving a conventional CP propeller and a diesel electric power plant powering a contra rotating electric pod and the entire hotel load of the ship. The machinery features Wärtsilä EnviroEngines equipped with Common Rail and compact SCR units.

In a bold move to simplify and expedite the entire ship surveying process, Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has implemented a new, information technology (IT) tool for use by its stations around the world. Heralded as a revolutionary step forward in surveying, the customer-driven initiative is known as TRON, and is intended to replace complicated, time-consuming correspondence with a largely electronically-based surveying process linked to the GL intranet. The value of TRON should be best realized when used in conjunction with 'fleet online', GL's Internet portal. The powerful new instrument of service and operations enables the necessary survey information…