Seventh Seawork for North Sea
Specialist marine winch manufacturing company North Sea Winches enjoyed a busy time at the Seawork show this summer, with one order following on from the exhibition and the prospect of more to follow.
Next year will be their 7th consecutive year at the event, and they have already signed up for their stand.
The biggest winches which the company has made to date are a pair of 185 ton hydraulic winches for wellhead operations in the Gulf of Mexico. These are driven by four piston type hydraulic motors through planetary gearboxes onto an open ring gear to achieve the required performance. The drums are designed to hold 230m of 35mm wire or 90m of 3.5″ rope, which is spooled on with automatic guiding gear.
The company continues to forge ahead with new designs for the tug market and also on display was a 50 ton waterfall type anchor handling and towing winch with remote controlled, self calibrating dog clutches. This winch has just successfully completed sea trials on the latest 35m tug built at Hepworth Shipyard for Holyhead Towing Company.
Designs are also on the board for 60 and 80 ton AHTS winches with complete wheelhouse control. All designs are done in-house, which means that North Sea Winches can cater for most hydraulic winch requirements from 500kg pull upwards.
Another recent successfully completed project was the supply of eight model GM-1100 hydraulic winches for LD Travocean of Marseille for mooring duties on a cable laying barge. The winches incorporated remote controlled clutches and brakes, and were fitted with automatic spooling gear for 1,000m of 36mm diameter wire.
