Raytheon Anschütz Steering Gear Control for Carnival
Germany’s Raytheon Anschütz won a contract to supply NautoSteer Advanced Steering Gear Control Systems to two prototype cruise ships being built at Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard for Carnival Corporation.
The new ships will operate under their Princess Cruises brand, and at 141,000 gt and with a capacity of 3,600 passengers, the ships will be the flagships in the Princess fleet and the largest ships ever built at Fincantieri. The delivery of the first ship – Royal Princess – is planned for spring 2013, the second is expected one year later.
Raytheon Anschütz supplies a redundant Standard 22 gyro compass system, the new NautoSteer AS Steering Gear Control, and the autopilot NautoPilot 5300 coming with a color touch display and fuel saving capabilities such as weather adaptivity and a heading and rudder plotter.
The NautoSteer AS steering gear control system onboard the cruise ships includes features, such as integrated steering failure monitoring, wire-break monitoring and data integrity monitoring. Another feature is a simplified steering mode selector switch with two independent steering positions: A ‘Direct NFU’ tiller that controls the steering gear directly without use of electronics and a ‘Main’ steering position for all other controls based on redundant CAN-bus technology.
“Nautosteer AS prevents from switching from a defective steering control to another defective steering control position,” said Olav Denker, Product Manager, Raytheon Anschütz. “In case of an evasive action or emergency, when time is crucial, this architecture supports the crew in their fast and safe decision making.”
The Princess ships will be equipped with a main steering control system consisting of follow-up bustillers, a handwheel and the adaptive autopilot NP 5300. Rudder mode operator units allow activating synchronous or independent rudder control. Within the main steering control system take-over of steering control is possible from any steering position on the bridge by pressing a single button. www.raytheon-anschuetz.com