Marine Deck Machinery News

ACE Winches announced post tax profits of £6.2m for 2012, a 15% increase on the previous year. Turnover at the Aberdeenshire-based group soared to £31.1m in the year ended October 31, 2012, a 42% increase on the previous twelve months, with around three-quarters (74%) of the company’s business generated from international trade. ACE Winches is a company in the design, manufacture and hire of winches, marine deck machinery and the provision of associated hire personnel for the offshore oil and gas, marine and renewable energy industries.

The Aker Kvaerner subsidiary, Maritime Pusnes, has had a busy start to the new year winning contracts for over NOK 180 million. The contracts involve both marine and offshore equipment demonstrating MP's strength in both these market sectors. Two contracts to supply mooring and riser pull-in equipment for a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel that will be located off the coast of Angola. The mooring equipment consists of 12 underwater (hull-mounted) fairleads for 146 mm chain. Two large linear wire winches will be supplied to pull in and tension the mooring lines. In addition, 12 deck-mounted chain stoppers and overboard fairleads will be produced.

Research Winches for R/V Maria S. Seven special winches were supplied by Hatlapa in December 2003 after being tested and demonstrated in the factory. These winches are intended for the new research vessel Maria S. Merian, which will support the vessel Polarstern during operations in the Arctic. Hatlapa has escorted this project for five years, during which time the design of the winches was formed in close cooperation with the order principal BAW (Bundesanstalt für Wasserbau) and the shipyard Krögerwerft in Rendsburg. One specialty is the combination of friction and storage winch for handling the very long and relatively thin measuring cables. The advantage is that the sensitive and expensive research ropes can be spooled on the storage winch free from load.