SOSI Delivers Mooring Winches; Completes Test Pad

Sound Ocean Systems, Inc. (SOSI) announced the delivery of two unique mooring winches, both tested on its newly constructed test pad at its primary manufacturing facility in Sultan, Wash.

Mooring Winches Delivered
SOSI recently delivered two all-electric, custom designed, VFD controlled large mooring winches developed for Oregon State University and the University of Washington.

Although configured differently, both the 175 HP OSU Heavy Lift winch and the 75 HP UW Medium Lift winch contained SOSI’s continuous position sensing level wind system. The Heavy Lift Winch is capable of deploying or recovering 25,000 lbs. mooring loads at full drum while the Medium Lift Winch is capable of similarly deploying or recovering 8,000 lbs. loads at full drum.

Both winches can accommodate a variety of line diameters and have the unique feature that the spooling lay factor can be programmed for one to three times the line diameter allowing the operator the choice of tight or loose spooling form factors. Both winches can pass mooring hardware such as thimbles and large shackles, and both were supplied with measurement and display of line scope, line speed and line tension.

During their recent maiden voyage aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson the winches were used to deploy two complicated two-leg moorings. The Medium Lift Winch was also used to recover a vertical profiler system. After initial deployments aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson and OSU’s R/V Oceanus, the winches, which were funded by NSF, will be moved to the UNOLS winch pool and will be available for use throughout the UNOLS fleet.

Winch Test Pad Completed
SOSI recently completed construction of a large test pad at their primary manufacturing facility in Sultan, Wash. This flush ground level concrete pad measures 40’ x 20’ x 2’ thick, weighs approximately 240,000 pounds and contains embedded steel I-beams used to secure the winches and handling systems to the pad.

The test pad was built to allow SOSI to test medium and large line pull winches, launch and recovery systems and other handling equipment requiring test loads to 60,000 lbs. It can also be used with SOSI’s spooling equipment to spool new working cables and lines onto winches under tension.

Almost immediately upon completion, the test pad was used to conduct Factory Acceptance Tests of the Heavy Lift Winch and a Medium Lift Winch custom designed and built for Oregon State University and the University of Washington.