By Karen Robes Meeks
The growing cost of doing business and the regulatory push for more emissions-reducing standards have prompted the maritime industry to find ways to make vessels greener and more efficient.
That extends to the realm of deck machinery, where companies have been improving upon product lines of reels, cranes, winches, power blocks and other forms of equipment and technology in recent years.
Deck machinery and vessel services provider MacGregor, for one, has said that there’s “a growing market for electric deck systems.”
“As with electric cranes, electric deck machinery enables significant OpEx savings – especially when factoring in its reduced maintenance and spare parts requirements,” Thomas Kappel, a senior MacGregor executive for deck machinery, said. “It is also more compact and easier to install than hydraulic-electric systems, while the absence of hydraulic oil makes it safer for the crew and the environment.”
Marine power solutions firm MER Equipment Chief Operating Officer and Engineering Director Tyler Allen said he continues to see the progress of vessel electrification.
“This can be in the form of hydraulics being replaced with electric drive motors and VFD (variable-frequency drives) or the addition of three-phase battery systems used to augment auxiliary engine power generation,” Allen said.
“The industry will need to work hard to bring more technicians into the fold that are trained to work on these systems,” he added.
Here’s what companies are offering in the deck machinery space.
Kinematics
Marysville, Wash.-based Kinematics Marine Equipment, adopted the motto, “landing your catch with confidence.” It has been a supplier of marine deck equipment for fishing and work boats and research vessels for more than 40 years. The company’s offerings range from gill net drums and rollers to power blocks and custom survey, research and anchor winches.
While 70% to 80% of its business in the last 10 years mainly came from Bristol Bay, Alaska, Kinematics has been seeing a stream of new business from a new fishery in Kentucky, where Asian carp have proliferated, according to Kinematics President James Davis.
The growing presence of the invasive species has brought the commercial fishing community and seafood processors to the area. Davis said his company has been supplying customers in the Midwest area with commercial fishing equipment such as power blocks and gill net rollers.
Kinematics is also looking to diversify its offerings with the development of an electric winch.
“We’ve always been so busy with the hydraulic side of things that we get calls all the time about electric winches, for years,” Davis said, adding that the inquiries come from the public sector such as state and fire departments.
“I don’t see hydraulics going away. However,” he added, “there is more and more of a demand for electric stuff.”
One reason for the heightened demand for electrical winches and products like them is the advancement of the equipment.
“Outboard motors have come a long way in the last 10 or 15 years,” Davis remarked. “They used to only be able to get like a 200-hp or a 250-hp motor. Now they’re making motors with 400 hp and 450 hp.”
The company decided to capitalize on the opportunity and is teaming up with the Australian firm Savwinch on an electric winch product. Savwinch’s proprietary enclosed brushless motor would go into Kinematics’ aluminum winch model, Davis said.
Davis added he’s hopeful that Kinematics can bring its electric winches to market by early 2025.
MER Equipment
Seattle-based marine power solutions firm MER Equipment has been at work introducing newly released projects. They include the fPTO for the new Cummins QSB4.5 generator, propulsion engines for powering hydraulics and deck gear and a new sound shield for the John Deere 6068 engine.
The company is excited for the newest addition to its generator enclosure lineup, said Allen the COO and engineering director.
“Based (on) the John Deere 6068 engine, we now have enclosed power gen models from 40-184 kWe,” he said. “This sound shield is a jump forward in sound deadening.”
MER Equipment is currently working on a new, heavy-duty 40 kW T3M generator model, as well as next-generation diesel generator paralleling systems. They distribute paralleling breakers that also incorporate hybrid power supplies, like three-phase paralleling battery systems, Allan said.
The company is also developing diesel particulate filters and NOx reduction systems for marine auxiliary engines operating in California.
“I think the most interesting developments are around what’s going on in California with CARB (the California Air Resources Board) and the focus on emissions reduction,” Allen said. “It is driving equipment suppliers throughout the supply chain to develop novel solutions to meet emissions requirements that don’t compromise vessel operability and conform with marine classification society safety requirements. It has been very interesting to see the new technologies evolving to meet these challenges.”
Markey
The longtime Seattle-based company, which has seen its business expand with the October 2023 acquisition of JonRie InterTech, was honored at the TugTechnology Conference in May as an Innovation Award finalist for its Agile Concept Bow Hawser Winch, Class III with ARR.
The Agile Concept design was created to work in limited spaces, including what’s between the staple and the ship-escort hawser winch, according to the company.
“We substantially redesigned the athwartships dimension, reducing it and integrating the previously independent L-shaped gearbox with the winch,” the company said Aug. 12. “This innovation results in a footprint reduction of 16.4% over previous models.”
Four longtime customers already have submitted orders for the winch design, according to the company.
Also new to Markey’s line – the DESH-5 Two-Sheave Level Wind, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has ordered for the biggest ship in its fleet, the 274-foot-long Ron W. Brown, as part of the vessel’s upgrades.
The DESH-5 Two-Sheave Level Wind expands on the prior three-sheave unit design, adding a number of safety improvements, according to Markey.
“For instance, the absence of reverse bends in the cable path extends the cable service life,” the company said. “The rotating flagging sheaves eliminate the need for a winch turntable, reducing both cost and complexity.”
Mechanical actuation using a hand wheel attached to the diamond screw lowers the overall level-wind cost even more by removing the need for extra sensors, motors and variable frequency drives, Markey said.
Palfinger
The Austria-based mechanical engineering company provides crane and lifting solutions and partners on deck and life-saving equipment globally.
Palfinger Marine showcased some of its new product developments at the SMM 2024 trade event in Hamburg, Germany from Sept. 3-6.
The company spotlighted the newly launched PFM 2100, Palfinger’s first heavy-duty foldable knuckle boom crane with the company’s patented P-profile. The product has been years in the making, with a feasibility analysis that took place as early as 2021. The main project launched in November 2022.
The initial model consisted of about 1,250 individual parts, according to Palfinger.
Created for aquaculture activities and service and workboat customers, the PFM 2100 has a nine-boom extension and a high-lifting capacity of more than 4,000 kilograms (8,818 pounds) with up to a 29-meter (95-foot) outreach, making it “a significant advantage over other solutions available on the market,” the company said.
According to its blog, the company plans to launch serial production at its facility in Marburg, Austria with the first two cranes expected to head to Norway by early 2025.
Palfinger also showed off the latest redesign of its PK slewing cylinder generation with the PK 25.001 M, a CE-compliant knuckle boom crane that’s completely foldable.
The new version features “optimized lifting geometry, offering enhanced performance for various applications,” and other improvements, the company said.
Naust
The Iceland-based deck machinery solutions company announced Aug. 20 that it has delivered to Falkland Trawler’s Argos Berbés fishing vessel a complete electric deck machinery package.
The new Orion Fishing Co.-owned 85-meter (279-foot) factory trawler, which is expected to be commissioned this fall and enter service in early 2025, features two trawl winches, four sweepline winches, an outhaul winch and other equipment to help fishers do their jobs.
The company also announced in May that it secured a contract with Nodosa Shipyard in Spain to provide a full electrical winch package and control system solution for a new generation factory trawler, to be called Voyager.
Anticipated to be 79 meters long (259 feet) and 15.50 meters (almost 51 feet) wide, the factory trawler is set to be the biggest vessel in the Talley’s Group fleet, able to process and freeze various species found in the New Zealand waters.
“According to Nodosa, this new build will be exceedingly energy efficient and sustainable,” Naust Marine said. “The shipyard’s architects optimized the hull lines and shapes to achieve top hydrodynamics and prime seakeeping.”
Voyager is anticipated for a 2026 delivery, according to Naust.
MacGregor
In March, MacGregor announced that it received an order for three cranes that are expected to be installed on a 191-meter (626-foot) long cable-laying vessel belonging to Prysmian, an Italian company providing electrical cable use in the energy and telecom areas.
MacGregor is supplying a 100-ton active heave compensated (AHC) crane, a 20T Offshore crane and a 3T deck crane to Prysmian, outfitting the company’s third NB970 cable-layer vessel from global shipbuilder Vard Marine.
“This is a significant order for MacGregor’s offshore handling business, and we are pleased to supply Vard with yet another package of our high performance cranes,” MacGregor Senior Vice President of Offshore Solutions Pasi Lehtonen said.
The vessel is expected to be delivered in 2027, according to MacGregor.
The deck machinery and vessel services provider also announced in June that it secured an order for its 50-ton AHC crane to be placed on the MMA Valour, a multi-purpose platform supply vessel whose work spans energy and offshore wind activities.
The company’s line of AHC cranes allows customers to accomplish precise lifting in extreme conditions, including in temperatures to minus 40°C.
MacGregor previously delivered AHC cranes to MMA Offshore for the MMA Pinnacle and MMA Prestige.
“We are looking forward to fitting the MMA Valour with a MacGregor active heave compensated crane, which will enhance the vessel’s capability to provide a broader range of marine and subsea services to our clients,” MMA Offshore Managing Director David Ross said.
“The conversion of the Valour to a multi-purpose support vessel will enable the vessel to provide light construction, ROV (remotely operated vehicle), survey and geotechnical support in addition to traditional supply services,” he explained.
Crane supply is set for the third quarter of 2025, the company said.
KAREN ROBES MEEKS, a Southern California native, is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years’ writing experience. Her articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Orange County Register and Long Beach Press-Telegram, where she worked as a reporter for nearly 14 years. Her work has been recognized by the California News Publishers Association, the Associated Press News Executives Council and the Los Angeles Press Club. Karen can be reached at karen@maritimepublishing.com