Air sprung ease for the Artemis
The Artemis is a self propelled cutter suction dredger, but a lot has gone into making it as self contained as possible. Above all, is the ability to just keep churning as running a dredger is an expensive business.
Sven Bakker of IHC Merwede, the build’s project manager, explained there are continuous barge mooring winches which keep the spoil barges in position alongside the dredger. Two mooring winches, from another member of the IHC Merwede group, IHC Hytop, are placed each side, fore and aft, and after the initial local tensioning to get the barge in position, the winches will run automatically or under helm command to keep the barge in the best position to for an even, stable fill. Because there are a pair each side, one barge can be under fill while the other is being readied.
The controlling element for these winches and the entire ship, is delivered by IHC Systems, and does the entire automation of the ship. This is one of the advantages in the integration of the entire vessel.
But there is also the way the deckhouse has been constructed. This is a block of three levels of cabins, an electrics level and an air conditioning level, with the wheelhouse on top of the five making and totalling over 400 tonnes in all.
Dredging equipment creates considerable noise and vibration, and with the vessel working flat out 24 hours a day, the crew can easily become fatigued or simply not get enough sleep because of the conditions.
In order to keep the human element happy, a layer of air is inserted between the bottom of the block and the ship’s structure. When underway, a sea fastening keeps everything fixed as part of the required regulatory needs, but when the vessel is on station and cutting, the sea fastenings are loosened and 105 air springs are inflated, giving just a few centimetres of clearance between the housing and the hard structure.
Technical specification:
Type: Self-propelled cutter suction dredger
Customer: Van Oord NV
Builder: IHC Dredgers BV
Length overall: 131.5m
Beam: 27.8m
Total installed power 24,650kW
Suction pipe diameter 1,000mm
Maximum dredging depth 25.8m (50°) / 32.4m (60°)
