SURFACE TENSION
Carnival, International Paint Strike Deal
International Paint LLC, an Akzo Nobel company, announced a long-term agreement with Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines to supply the company’s fleet with Intersleek 700 foul release coating system. The agreement comes after Intersleek 700 was successfully used in a pilot program by Carnival beginning in 2001 to test the coating’s extended life performance in preventing organisms from adhering to underwater hulls. The program was expanded over the next five years. The consistent decrease in annual bunker costs over that time period led to the agreement that now includes 10 ships. Roberto Martinoli, Senior Vice President of Technical, Environmental and Safety Operations, performed a thorough evaluation of the pilot program, which initiated several rounds of negotiations. Martinoli, Brian Swensen and Umberto Sampiero spearheaded these negotiations for Carnival, and Robert Hall, George Smyth, Tom Mulligan and Paul Marzocca for International Paint LLC. The goal was to create a proven underwater coating program that maximizes the ship’s fuel efficiency, creating economic value for Carnival. Intersleek 700 is a silicone-based foul release coating system, providing an environmentally friendly solution to combat marine fouling. The coating also is designed to significantly increase underwater hull coating longevity, providing added fuel savings due to exceptionally low surface tension.
Floating Solar Field Concept Unveiled by DNV
DNV has developed SUNdy, a large-scale offshore solar field concept that aims to help countries seeking alternative energy sources. The core feature of the concept is a hexagonal array which floats on the sea surface. A collection of these arrays, totaling 4,200 solar panels, forms a solar island the size of a large football stadium, capable of generating 2 MW of power. Multiple islands connected together make up a solar field of 50 MW or more, producing enough electricity for 30,000 people
New Barge Pulling System
Thern Inc. announced a new alternative -- The Barge Pulling System – to help position barges more efficiently when loading and unloading, without the use of tug boats. The new system uses two power winches and a control panel that is designed to help operators easily maneuver barges along the edge of the pier. By letting out line on one of the winches and pulling in on the other, the system is able to control the tension so operators can reduce slack and eliminate barge drift.
USCG Sets Safety Zone Around Shell Rigs
The U.S. Coast Guard will establish safety zones around seven of Shell Oil's Gulf of Mexico high-production oil and natural gas platforms, at the company's request, to protect them from being hit by vessels operating outside normal shipping channels. "Placing safety zones around the platforms will significantly reduce the threat of...oil spills and releases of natural gas," the Coast Guard said in a notice published in Thursday's Federal Register.
MTNW Supports Frontier Drilling
Measurement Technology NW (MTNW) has recently completed a contract to provide installation, calibration and commissioning on an eight-point mooring monitoring system for Frontier’s drill ship, Duchess, off the coast of Nigeria. The new running line tensiometer and LCI-90 mooring monitoring system provides visibility into line tensions which will support mooring and rig movement monitoring. The Duchess is a 475 ft by 75 ft vessel which needs to stay centered over an offshore oil-well
J. Ray, Keppel FELS Joint Venture
J. Ray McDermott will undertake fabrication and installation work for the P-61 Tension Leg Wellhead Platform (TLWP) in more than 3,871 feet of water, for the Papa Terra Joint Venture, consisting of Petrobras (operator) and Chevron. The overall P-61 project — comprising design, engineering, construction, transportation, installation, and a three-year limited operations contract — was awarded to FloaTEC Singapore Pte Ltd (FloaTEC Singapore)
ProSurf 3: Upgraded Hull Design And Fairing Program
New Wave Systems, Inc. (www.newavesys.com) announced the release of ProSurf 3, a major new version of its hull design and fairing program. After 15 years of development, ProSurf 3 has evolved into a general-purpose trimmed NURB surface modeling program. ProSurf 3 offers unique features, such as using edit points that lie on the NURB curves and surfaces, dynamic curvature feedback for fairing, fine tune shaping commands, dynamic geometry constraints, editing and shelling of polysurfaces
Dockwise Performs Timely Delivery of Shell's Brutus
On January 28, the motor vessel Mighty Servant 3 of heavy transport shipping specialist Dockwise, safely arrived at Corpus, Christi, Texas (after a seven-week voyage) carrying Shell's 14,500-ton Brutus TLP (Tension Leg Platform) hull from South Korea. Moving at a speed of 13 knots, the vessel arrived via the Cape of Good Hope. Dockwise was granted the contract by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for the transportation of the TLP hull for Shell's Gulf of Mexico Brutus project
Aker Kvaerner to Deliver Another Deepwater Drilling Riser
Maersk Contractors has awarded Aker Kvaerner a contract to deliver a spare riser for their ongoing semi-submersible drilling rig building program. The spare riser comes in addition to orders received in 2005 and 2006 for three complete riser systems to be delivered from 2008 to 2010. All risers are equipped with an industry leading connector technology designed for safe and reliable operation in ultra-deep water.
AVEVA Releases AVEVA Surface Manager
Improve marine design quality through standards based transfer of surface to and from external systems. AVEVA, an engineering design and information management solutions for the plant, power and marine industries, has announced the release of AVEVA Surface Manager 12.1, another new product in its AVEVA Marine portfolio. AVEVA Surface Manager allows the transfer of surfaces to and from external systems
Mixed Messages on Monitoring and Automation Technology
A recent study found that 84% of port owners, operators and contractors said they would expect increased safety to be the primary benefit in specifying an automated system to monitor factors such as mooring line tension, approach speed and environmental conditions
JonRie Supplies Equipment for New Great Lakes ASD
JonRie InterTech was commissioned for the supply of deck equipment for the new ASD Aura from Great Lakes Shipyard, Cleveland, Ohio. The new Tug is a Jensen designed ASD 4650 HP complete with a JonRie Series 220 Double Drum hawser winch on the bow with a capacity of 150M of 60 mm line
Valentine Receives New Lay Barge
Valentine Maritime’s new derrick equipped pipe laying barge has accommodation for 300 people and a 1,600-ton crane mounted on a 120 by 31.7 meter (393.6X104-foot) barge. VM’s DLB1600 was built over a three-year period at the Nanjing Tianshun Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., in China
Seaward Provides Bridge Officers for LCS and JHSV Sea Trials
Seaward Services provides bridge officers, including the master and chief engineer, for Builder and Acceptance Trials of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV). USNS Choctaw County, the Navy's second Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV 2)
Deepwater Seabed Minerals Exploration Project
Keppel Corporation forms, Ocean Mineral Singapore Pte., to explore for polymetallic nodules several kilometres beneath the ocean's surface. Polymetallic nodules contain copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese, as well as rare earth minerals, and have the potential of supplying these key metals to
USS Freedom Repainted with Amercoat
PPG Industries said the topsides of the USS Freedom, lead ship of the U.S Navy's littoral combat ships (LCS), have been repainted using AMERCOAT(R) 240 edge-retention epoxy and PSX(R) 700SG epoxy-polysiloxane coatings by PPG's protective and marine coatings (PMC) business.
Gateway Technology for Ocean Measurements
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, in collaboration with two private industry firms, are developing potentially breakthrough technologies to capture vital information from the world’s oceans. Scripps researchers John Orcutt and Jon Berger developed a
2013 Ship Production Symposium: Call for Papers
The Ship Production Symposium in conjunction with SNAME’s 2013 Annual Meeting has released a call for papers. The SNAME 2013 Annual Meeting/Ship Production Symposium will be held from November 6-8 in Bellevue, Wash. Deadline for abstracts is June 3
GE to Supply Austal with Gas Turbines for Navy Ships
GE Marine said it will provide Austal USA, Mobile, Ala., with four LM2500 marine aeroderivative gas turbines to power the United States Navy’s 14th and 16th Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). GE is providing 20 LM2500 gas turbines for the Austal USA LCS program
IHC Merwede Launches Subsea 7 Vessel
IHC Merwede has successfully launched Subsea 7'ss 550t pipelaying vessel, Seven Waves, at its shipyard in Krimpen aan den IJssel, The Netherlands. The naming ceremony was carried out by Mrs Lucia Andrade, the ship’s God Mother and Subsea 7 Brazil’s Vice President Projects &
Damaged Hull Coating Cause of Cutter Corrosion
The U.S. Coast Guard's Engineering Analysis Board has identified factors associated with corrosion on the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter 'Stratton'. The Engineering Analysis Board concluded that the unusual pattern of corrosion observed on the Stratton was caused by Damage to the
China Aircraft Carrier Group Assembling Quietly
Escort ships for China's first aircraft carrier, the 'Liaoning', are quietly assembling at Qingdao Harbor & are expected to sail soon. Citing the Hong Kong-based Chinese-language newspaper 'Wen Wei Po' Focus Taiwan reports that the carrier battle group might comprise the Liaoning
Great Lakes Towing Frees Stranded Freighter
Great Lakes Towing Company tugboats 'Wyoming' & 'Idaho' free the grounded freighter 'Spruceglen' in Lake St. Claire. The Great Lakes Towing Company, which celebrates 115 years of service this year, provides tugboat and towing services, ship assist, logistics and cargo transportation
Subsea 7 Orders Heavy Construction Vessel
Subsea 7 S.A. has contracted Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) to build the new ship. The new-building will be one of the most capable heavy construction vessels in Subsea 7’s fleet of over 40 ships, and is due to be delivered in 2016,
Power Below the Waves: ABB Subsea Transformers
ABB has delivered subsea transformers for fields in the North & Norwegian seas & the Gulf of Mexico for operation at depths of up to 2,000 m. Subsea transformers are an ABB innovation. Deployed in extreme conditions in ultra-deepwater