Cavotec wins Vacuum Innovation Award

The MoorMaster uses a vacuum to allow large container ships, tankers, freighters and ferries to moor in harbour simply, safely and rapidly.

Dr Karl Busch, who presented the awards, said: “Cavotec has worked very hard to find a suitable quayside solution that allows large ships to dock rapidly and securely.”

“The main motivation for this development work was to avoid the accidents with heavy hawsers that continue to occur,” he added.

Cavotec MoorMaster systems are installed throughout the world and all of them use Busch’s claw vacuum pumps. The technology drastically reduces the time taken to berth a vessel, reducing large freighters berthing times from between 20 and 90 minutes to just seconds.

Large freighters of up to 450,000 deadweight tonnes or container vessels with up to 18,000 standard containers can be held securely without mooring lines by this new mooring technology.

Dr Busch and his wife Ayhan Busch developed the first Busch vacuum pump revolutionising the packaging market and they have since continued developing vacuum technology to influence many other innovations.

In 2013 the Busch family created the Busch Vacuum Innovation Award to recognise companies and individuals who have contributed to vacuum technology innovations.

By Alice Mason