Steel Cables News

After a bumper year for floating offshore wind farm tenders, the nascent industry is poised for explosive growth in the coming decade as countries strive to cut their carbon emissions. But it's unlikely to be all plain sailing. Rising costs and supply chain bottlenecks have hit some projects and without investment in infrastructure to launch the vast turbines and tow them to sea, hopes of harnessing the full power of the ocean's winds to hit climate targets could be dashed, industry experts say.

Strength, Safety and Sustainability are at the heart of this Homeland Security stakeholder’s mission set.For over 30 years, high performance fiber rope manufacturer Phillystran has worked with the U.S. Coast Guard to supply mooring and towing lines. As innovations in fiber rope technology have enabled lighter and stronger ropes, the Coast Guard has not been slow to take advantage of these and other developments.In step with most maritime stakeholders, NAVSEA approved fiber ropes are widely used by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Trelleborg’s oil & marine hose operation has launched the KLELINE STS oil transfer solution, which is set to upgrade safety and operability standards in ship-to-ship (STS) oil transfer around the world. This solution sets a new benchmark for safe and efficient ship-to-ship oil transfer, inspired by unique floating hose design, qualified to GMPHOM 2009 standard.STS transfer is becoming an increasingly popular option among ship operators and managers, as it allows vessels carrying liquid cargo to transfer offshore.

The SMM 2018 scheduled to take place September 4-7, 2018, in Hamburg, Germany, is held every two years and is the traditional launching platform for a variety of commercial shipping and shipbuilding technologies. Five new marine technologies to look for in Hamburg include:Company: CM Technologies GmbHBooth: A3.204Product: New Performance Indicator to save fuelThe PREMET X measuring device presented by CM Technologies GmbH makes it possible to precisely determine the cylinder pressure at every cylinder position…

Dive and salvage teams worked to remove debris used as anchor blocks by environmental activists protesting Shell’s Arctic drilling aboard a barge in Seattle’s Alki Seacrest Park on May 19. A dive team from Global Diving & Salvage, Inc., along with divers from Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) Seattle, collaborated to remove several concrete blocks and thick steel mooring cables that held barge Solar Pioneer in place as the activists protested Shell’s Polar Pioneer arctic drilling rig then housed at Seattle’s Harbor Island Terminal 5.

Total cargo volumes were 10,526,732 metric tonnes (MT) in 2014, representing a 5% increase over 2013. The port welcomed 157 ships from overseas in 2014, with the balance (462) operating within the Canada/US Great Lakes. Overseas tonnage was 2 million tonnes, a gain of 39 percent year-over-year and the highest volume of overseas cargo in a decade. The Port of Hamilton is the largest port in Ontario. A multimodal hub with full Seaway-depth marine capacity, goods can be imported from, and exported to, anywhere in the world. Direct rail and truck service puts some of North America’s largest consumer markets within a day’s reach. “Efficient transportation can offer a critical advantage in global markets where margins are tight,” said Hamilton Port Authority President & CEO Bruce Wood.

Klϋber Lubrication has introduced Klüberbio AG 39-602, an environmentally acceptable adhesive lubricant for open pinion gears and steel cables. Based on ester oil and selected additives, the grease complies with the requirements for environmentally acceptable lubricants (EALs) as defined in Appendix A of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2013 Vessel General Permit (VGP). Klüberbio AG 39-602 contains more than 60 percent of renewable raw materials, resulting in reduced environmental impact in the event of discharge into water.

Klϋber Lubrication, a worldwide manufacturer of specialty lubricants, has introduced Klüberbio AG 39-602, an environmentally acceptable adhesive lubricant for open gears and steel cables. Based on ester oil and selected additives, the grease complies with the requirements for environmentally acceptable lubricants (EALs) as defined in Appendix A of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2013 Vessel General Permit (VGP). Klüberbio AG 39-602 contains greater than 60 percent of renewable raw materials, resulting in reduced environmental impact in the event of discharge into water.

Signal International Inc. recently completed a $9m yard and drydock renovation on its ship repair facility in Mobile, Alabama. Signal Ship Repair (SSR), the company’s most recent acquisition, is the flagship vessel repair and new construction division for ships, workboats, and tugs in the Signal family of yards. The facility upgrade project was completed ahead of schedule and ready for the Transocean Deepwater Navigator. The drillship has been at Signal’s Pascagoula yard for repairs and recently arrived at SSR’s Panamax drydock…

When the wicked winter weather begins to blow off Lake Erie, a shipbuilder and a crane company in Cleveland, Ohio, and the New York Power Authority (NYPA) will be glad they cooperatively commissioned and built a barge-mounted pedestal crane for the Lake Erie-Niagara River Ice Boom Operations in Buffalo, N.Y., to help reduce potential damage to hydroelectric power plants caused by Lake Erie’s inevitable ice. The NYPA asked Great Lakes Shipyard, a member of The Great Lakes Group in Cleveland, to fabricate and deliver a new 80-foot by 34-foot pedestal crane barge for the ice boom operation.

For the first time in the history of the inland navigation system, a dam floated. The Braddock Dam Segment One floated into place and set down on Dec. 7, mating underwater with 47 drilled shafts that make up the dam segment's foundation. Vertical and horizontal alignment of the segment came within one inch of the design. Segment One, the larger of two segments, is a reinforced concrete marine structure 330 ft. long and weighing 16,600 tons. On Dec. 5 towboats moved it from the project outfitting pier a mile-and-a-half upstream, then it was sunk in place. Underbase grouting filled the gap between the river bottom and underside of the dam segment.

The Stralsund ship lift reportedly breaks all records, as nowhere in the world is there a lifting and lowering facility on a larger scale than this 754 x 115 ft. (230 m x 35 m) lift. Equally impressive is its power, which enables it to raise and lower a ship of up to 20,700 tons to a maximum of 36 ft. (11 m) without difficulty, the Maersk Valencia in December 1999, serving as an example. The bow of the oceangoing giant peers out of the 36 ft. (75 m) high shipyard bay, its steel hull follows: the Maersk Valencia, a 682 ft. (208 m) containership, edges slowly forward. On 432 wheels, a strange vehicle trundles along the rails like a steel centipede, at two meters a minute.

While Berth 1 at Langdale terminal is closed for the replacement of one of the wingwalls, BC Ferries staff will strengthen the ramp to withstand earthquakes, assistant vice-president Jeanette McKay announced. "An engineering analysis of the structure and soils supporting the foundations revealed that the ramp could be at risk during even a moderate tremor," said McKay. Berth 1 has been closed since Jan. 17 to replace the wingwall - an outer section that holds the ferry in place when it docks - and had been scheduled to reopen March 17. With the seismic upgrade, the closure has been extended one month. Had the seismic upgrade been done separately, the berth would have been out of commission an extra two months. The ramp consists of six spans supported by three frames.