HI-TECH

Mitsui and SpecTec reinforce cooperation agreement

During a recent meeting in Tokyo, SpecTec and Mitsui agreed to further enhance their cooperation.
Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding is the SpecTec agent in Japan and is cooperating with SpecTec in enhancing sales and support in the country. This cooperation has been recently rewarded with the signing of contracts worth 1.3mU$ for the delivery of the AMOS systems to a number of LNG carriers, being built by several builders including MES, KSC, KOYO (IMABARI GROUP) and Universal.
The contracts include delivery of the AMOS System and providing data entry services in the building of ship specific database libraries; the software will be linked with the ships automation equipment in order to allow automatic reading of run time data, as well as other key data as defined by ships' owners. The vessels are equipped with automation plant supplied by well-known makers such as Kongsberg, JRCS, Yokogawa, Yamatake, etc.
"The cooperation between Mitsui and SpecTec has already produced excellent results", stated Giampiero Soncini, CEO of the SpecTec Group. "We have agreed to enhance this cooperation by providing more sales and technical support, and by linking AMOS with MES's Total Integrated LAN system, a concept designed to facilitate data handling on board ships of various equipment such as Voyage Data Recorders, Bridge Systems, Remote Cameras, Automatic Identification Systems and so on"
The cooperation between MES and SpecTec has so far been very active in the LNG sector, where 14 deliveries have been made.
During the meeting, it was agreed to join forces and efforts to explore other markets, such as the oil, gas & offshore sectors, where SpecTec has many large installations with primary customers such as Saipem, AGIP, SBM, Western Petroleum and more.
Thanks to this agreement, the whole Japanese market will be more available to the AMOS products.

Thursday, 11 June 2005

Magazine on-line: www.TTMmagazine.com

SAM Electronics shore connection systems for new NSB vessels

Hamburg-based SAM Electronics is to supply advanced medium-voltage power connection systems for eight new 8,500 teu container vessels under construction by Samsung Heavy Industries for delivery to NSB Niederelbe from 2005-6. Containerized, the systems will provide an interface between SAM Electronics-designed 6.6 kV electrical installations aboard the vessels and Alternative Maritime Power (AMP) sources on piers. Cable connections are arranged by an electric/ hydraulically-controlled cable reel-system.

Newly developed by SAM Electronics, the modular connection systems are designed for installation on the increasing number of large container vessels now being equipped with medium-voltage switchboards. Their development is in response to huge energy demands typically in the area of 2-7 MW for cooling purposes during berthing periods of such vessels, coupled with increasing requirements for environment-friendly power supplies within ports mitigating air pollution and keeping civil health.

Tuesday, 7 June 2005

Magazine on-line www.TTMmagazine.com

International design award for SAM Electronics new navigation console

SAM Electronics of Hamburg has won a coveted red dot design award for its modular and ergonomically-matched navigation consoles. These consoles are designed for different navigational systems of the latest NACOS 5 series integrated navigation and command system.

The annual red dot design awards ceremony, which now celebrates its 50th anniversary, is established as one of the world’s premier product design assessment. Competitions, this year’s event having attracted about 1,900 entries from 36 countries judged by a panel of leading industrial and consumer design experts drawn from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. Criteria for the international seal of approval award for outstanding design include degree of innovation, formal quality, functionality and ergonomics.

Along with other winners (who include auto manufacturers BMW and Mercedes-Benz), SAM Electronics will receive its award for the console at a festive ceremony on 4 July at the Aalto Theatre, Essen in the presence of guests from the worlds of design, culture, business and politics. A system console will then be exhibited together with other winning entries in the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen from 5 July - 7 August. The Museum houses the world’s largest exhibition of contemporary design.

Commenting on the award, SAM Electronics’ President Klaus Lorenz said: “We are extremely excited to receive such a prestigious international award which bears testimony to our strong commitment to providing innovative practical solutions not only for optimum safety of navigation at sea, but also for other ship-operating processes.”

The functionally integrated NACOS 5 assembly marks the latest stage of the continuing development of NACOS navigation systems, forerunners of which were originally designed as part of the earlier German Ship-of-the-Future project. Accounting for more than 60% of global cruiseliners integrated navigation requirements, nearly 1,000 configurations have so far been commissioned worldwide.

Tuesday, 7 June 2005

Magazine on-line www.TTMmagazine.com

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. rolls out NAPA

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has taken NAPA, Napa Ltd’s naval architectural software package, into corporate-wide use as MHI’s primary system for early ship design. NAPA will be deployed in Japan throughout all MHI shipyards, the corporate headquarters in Tokyo, and the MHI research institute. MHI is also allocating resources to the development of MHI-specific NAPA Manager applications with the aim of enhancing the overall MHI design system.

Initially, MHI took NAPA into use at the Nagasaki Shipyard for a large cruise ship project in 2001. Gradually MHI has expanded the system’s use to other ship types, and to the other shipyards within the group.

MHI will be making good use of the range of functionality offered by NAPA. The features to be used throughout MHI include, among others, the NAPA Steel system for ship structural design at the early design stages, and a wide range of naval architectural subsystems.

Ship design made easy with NAPA Managers

MHI’s decision to invest in in-house Manager application development follows a number of similar decisions made by some of the world’s largest shipbuilders. NAPA Manager applications have gained wide-ranging acceptance from the industry in a short period of time. The NAPA Manager offers tools for organising complex ship design processes into logical hierarchies. Tasks can be carried out by following organised work flows making the design process straightforward and manageable.

Napa Ltd offers a selection of standard NAPA Manager applications, such as the NAPA Contract Design Manager and NAPA Stability Booklet Manager. Experienced users, however, can also develop and customise Manager applications meeting their own specific needs. Several Manager customisation projects have already been successfully completed by a number of NAPA users.

The NAPA Contract Design Manager is intended for quick and easy creation of the 3D product model at an early design stage. The 3D model thus created serves as the primary source of design information at stages leading up to the contract. The application already covers the creation of the hull form, compartments, and the General Arrangement, calculation of capacities, equipment numbers and freeboard, hydrostatics output, speed and power prediction as well as loading and stability. In other words, the Contract Design Manager encompasses most of the disciplines required for making a contract-winning design.

Most significantly, the upcoming enhanced version of the Contract Design Manager introduces a feature for quick definition and editing of container arrangements. The defined container arrangement can be visualised in 3D, making it easy to check and view the arrangement. With the Manager, a container arrangement can be made in a matter of hours. In addition, definition of master planes and of the tanker inner shell have been included in the new version.

Flexibility is the key word in describing the NAPA Contract Design Manager; it’s easy to make changes, adjustments and updates to the design. Relevant detailed analyses can be performed and the feasibility of the design re-evaluated effortlessly, making the application ideal for the early design stages.

With the NAPA Stability Booklet Manager, a typical stability booklet containing some 250 pages can be compiled in about an hour provided that a complete NAPA product model of the ship is available. Loading conditions must be defined prior to the compilation of the booklet, during which the loading condition calculations will be carried out. The traditional method of making stability booklets pales in comparison to NAPA Stability Booklet Manager: putting together a stability booklet in the traditional way can easily take several working days.

Tuesday, 7 June 2005

Magazine on-line www.TTMmagazine.com

Wärtsilä 46F engines for Wagenborg feeder containership

Wärtsilä Corporation won a contract in April to supply two of the new Wärtsilä 46F engines to power an Ice class 1A, 1700 TEU open-top container feeder vessel ordered by the Dutch shipowner Wagenborg Shipping, a member of the Royal Wagenborg group.

To be built by the Kinderdijk shipyard of IHC Holland Dredgers BV in the Netherlands, the vessel will have dimensions of 167 m in length between perpendiculars and 23.7 m in breadth, and have a draught of 7.7 m. Her hatchless design will ensure fast turnround times in port, while a speed of about 21 knots will give short transit times. The vessel is scheduled for delivery in mid 2006 and will be mainly employed in northern European waters.

Wärtsilä is to supply the ship with both the two main engines and a controllable-pitch (CP) propeller. The main engines are six-cylinder Wärtsilä 46F engines each with a maximum continuous power of 7500 kW at 600 rpm. They will drive a single, 5.35m-diameter Lips CP propeller through a combining reduction gearbox. The Lips propeller will be equipped with the latest, compact E-type hub resulting in higher efficiency.

This solution with twin engines driving a single CP propeller provides flexibility in operation on either one or both main engines to provide excellent fuel economy over a wide range of ship speeds.

Wagenborg is one of the largest shipowning groups in Europe of vessels between 1000 and 20,000 tonnes deadweight. Most of the vessels in its fleet are equipped with Wärtsilä engines and Lips propellers.

New features with the Wärtsilä 46F engine

The new Wärtsilä 46F engine was launched at the SMM marine exhibition in Hamburg in autumn 2004. It offers reliable, compact and economic power based on a further refinement of proven design concepts, complemented by new value-adding features like best in class fuel- and lube oil consumption.

Initially available in six-, seven-, eight- and nine-cylinder in-line configurations, the Wärtsilä 46F covers a power range of 7500 to 11,250 kW at 600 rpm.

The output of 1250 kW/cylinder enables the engines to have fewer cylinders than alternative engines for a given output. This makes optimum use of space in ships, and reduces the maintenance required.

The Wärtsilä 46F has common rail fuel injection as a standard, which offers almost unlimited possibilities to adjust the fuel injection process to prevailing engine operating conditions, fuel characteristics and local emission requirements. The Wärtsilä 46F is also available with more conventional fuel injection equipment. In this case the injection equipment is based on injection pumps of the double plunger type that have been used with good experience on other Wärtsilä engines.

New monitoring technology has been introduced for the continuous measurement of bottom-end bearing temperatures. These are combined with the temperatures of main bearings and exhaust gases to provide real-time monitoring of engine performance in critical areas. These temperatures and other parameters can also be fed into Wärtsilä's Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) service which is available to Wärtsilä engine users.

The Wärtsilä 46F follows the design philosophy in all new generation Wärtsilä engines of having modular built-on systems, including the lubricating oil cooler, filter and pump, as well as cooling water pumps and thermostatic valves.

Tuesday, 7 June 2005

Magazine on-line www.TTMmagazine.com

COMPOSITE MATERIAL (da TTM maggio/giugno 2005)

Compositi ad alta prestazione

Il nostro collaboratore architetto Edoardo Miola ha partecipato al JEC Composites Show di Parigi e gli abbiamo chiesto di descriverci le novità e formulare le sue osservazioni da esperto conoscitore della materia.

Parigi - L’impressione che si ha visitando il Jec Composites Show di Parigi, che si è tenuto dal 5 al 7 aprile 2005, è che la tecnologia del futuro sarà quella dei compositi ad alte prestazioni.

Quest’ anno la sensazione più evidente che si avvertiva era riferita all’evoluzione dei termoplastici che stanno creando la vera piattaforma di riferimento dei compositi.

Un’altra osservazione che viene spontanea da fare è come stiano crescendo le aziende attive nel settore dei particolari di fissaggio della componentistica ottenuta da termoplastici.

Viti, anime filettate, placche, clips, ecc. in composito, vanno via via sostituendo i metalli, anche il costosissimo titanio.

In campo navale nella cantieristica minore , la larga diffusione di sistemi di stampaggio con procedimento di Infusione, offrono nuove garanzie di correttezza di plastificazione, tutela dell’ambiente di lavoro e riciclaggio degli scarti derivanti dalla produzione.

Ma l’aspetto che fornisce più spunti degni di attenzione è l’avvicinamento del settore navale commerciale alle nuove tecnologie e ad i materiali tecnologicamente più avanzati.

Marine Forum 2005

L’interessante Marine Forum ha proposto alcuni interventi riferiti allo sviluppo delle caratteristiche tecnologiche delle resine assistite da studi

di nanotecnologia per il miglioramento delle fluidità e la rapidità nei processi di impregnazione.

I tessuti in 3D costituiscono poi l’interessante sviluppo rispetto la qualità dei laminati sia che si parli di Prepreg che di Scrimp, viene praticamente eliminato il problema delle delaminazioni tra le stratificazioni.

Il procedimento Scrimp vede sempre di più la sua diffusione ed è Taiwan che porta interessanti innovazioni nel sistema di laminazione per scafi a motore sopra i 30 metri.

Ottimizzare, semplificare e ridurre i tempi sono i criteri guida. James Fwu della Atech, è riuscito a dimostrare come uno scafo possa essere realizzato in Scrimp laminando contemporaneamente scafo e struttura di rinforzo.

Ma parlando del settore navale commerciale è stato decisamente rilevante l’intervento di Baard Røsvik, Marketing Manager della Devold AMT.

Nella sua esposizione estremamente concisa e circostanziata sono stati illustrati i chiari criteri economici alla base di una scelta strategica di lungimiranti armatori che hanno promosso l’impiego del carbonio nella realizzazione di tre tipi di scafi commerciali realizzati in Norvegia dalla Devold AMT.

Si tratta di tre unità : una nave ambulanza da 40 nodi, un ferry da 97 passeggeri, una nave rapida passeggeri da 64 posti.

Il criterio uniformatore dei progetti è stato quello di sviluppare scafi di peso estremamente contenuto e che con la riduzione del peso, appunto, consentissero una ulteriore riduzione del peso delle motorizzazioni e delle riserve di carburante. Il risultato è stato l’incremento della velocità e la riduzione dei consumi carburante e lubrificante.

Il primario interesse dell’armatore rispetto la scelta delle tecnologia di costruzione è limitato all’aspetto dell’investimento, se l’investimento rende, l’equazione è soddisfatta.

L’adozione di uno scafo in carbonio garantisce l’aumento del costo ma anche un alleggerimento, pari alla metà, del peso di uno scafo in alluminio, un’ottima resistenza alla corrosione ed una maggiore resistenza rispetto l’uso sotto stress .

Non è infine da dimenticare che l’adozione del composito consente l’adozione di linee di design per nulla vincolate da doppie curvature, ecc.

Alcuni numeri

Uno scafo di un catamarano di 24 metri di alluminio pesa 18 tonnellate, in GRP 15 tonnellate ed in CFRP 9 tonnellate; ciò consente un risparmio totale in peso di 11 tonnellate con un conseguente risparmio energetico di 60l/h.

Come spesso accade le motivazioni che rallentano l’introduzione di queste tecnologie sono la scarsa conoscenza e una sensazione di rischio avvertito in modo più alto rispetto a quanto non lo sia in realtà.

Devold è stata la vincitrice del Jec Composites Awards 2005.

Edoardo Miola

JEC Composites Show 2005 has been held from 5th to 7th April at Paris Expo.

JEC Composites Show is the only show worldwide dedicated to composites materials, an event that gathers and connects all industry players from every sector. The general trends of the show include a growing use of resins and thermoplastic semi-finished products, lively growth for thermoset composites, more and more high-tech applications, continuing development of closed-mould techniques and an increasing use of renewable raw materials.

The JEC Composites Awards, presented by the JEC Group, reward “innovation partners” in the following sectors: aeronautics & space, ground mass transportation, marine, construction, energy & industry, and sports & leisure.

The winner for the marine sector have been Devold AMT (Norway) and their partner Broedrene Aa (Norway) for boats built entirely in carbon fibre and vinylester-sandwich composite. The hulls are made using closed-mould methods. Three types of boats were developed: an ambulance boat, a harbour shuttle boat (64 passengers), and a medium-capacity ferry (97-passenger catamaran). Using carbon fibre reduces structural mass by 40% compared to fibreglass reinforcement and the additional cost is less than 10%. The new hulls contribute to greater passenger comfort.

Che cosa sono i compositi “tradizionali” ?

A distanza di più di 45 anni dalla nascita dei materiali compositi, ci stiamo finalmente avvicinando alla nascita di una disciplina applicativa per i cantieri navali.

Entro il 2006 è preannunciata l’entrata in vigore delle norme applicative per i Cantieri Navali.

Una staff di tecnici costituito dai rappresentanti dei vari paesi, ha sviluppato e confrontato diversi schemi; presto sarà promulgata una normativa unitariamente accettata.

Quando si parla di compositi ci si riferisce alla combinazione di un elemento prevalentemente fibroso irrigidito in una sua particolare forma per mezzo di un legante(resina), che può essere di varia natura, composizione e stato.

Le resine possono essere : poliestere, vinilestere,epossidiche,ecc.

Le fibre possono essere principalmente: fibre di vetro,fibre aramidiche, kevlar,carbonio,boro,ecc.

Le fibre possono essere altresì variamente confezionate: fibre parallele “unidirezionali”, fibre tagliate e casualmente disposte”matt”, fibre raccolte in “tessuti” di varia natura e pesantezza, fibra tessute in “3D” (tessitura in tre dimensioni),ecc.

I sistemi di impregnaggio e plastificazione possono essere svariati: impregnazione tradizionale con resina liquida stesa manualmente,impregnazione per mezzo di spruzzo di resina combinata a filamento Spray –Up, preimpregnazione del tessuto Pre-preg con polimerizzazione a caldo,Infusione Scrimp, procedimento sprint (tessuto a più strati con resina a secco in strato).

I sistemi di plastificazione si completano per mezzo di successivi “trattamenti”:

Post-cottura; Essicazione e stagionatura; Vacum; Pressione in autoclave, temperatura,vacum combinati.

A queste prime nozioni vanno aggiunte le numerosissime possibilità di combinazione tra i laminati ottenuti con materiali di riempimento necessari per ottenere i sandwich: Schiume poliviniliche; Schiume epossidiche; Schiume poliuretaniche; Schiume acriliche; Airex; Alveolari in alluminio; Alveolari sintetici; Balsa, ecc.

E.M.

La riproduzione delle notizie è subordinata alla citazione della fonte www.TTMmagazine.com, ai sensi del Decreto Legislativo 68/03 ad attuazione della direttiva 2001/29/CE sul diritto d’autore che integra l’articolo 65 della legge 633/41, comma 2

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MARINE ROBOTICS OBSERVATORY (da TTM maggio/giugno 2005)

La Robotica alla riscossa

Scienziati e industriali robotici europei promuovono la Piattaforma Tecnologica Europea sulla Robotica

A seguito dell’interesse suscitato dal mio articolo Robotica e nuvole, pubblicato sul numero scorso di TTM, e di ritorno dal convegno ICRA2005 a Barcellona – il principale evento robotico annuale nel mondo, patrocinato dalla IEEE – vorrei ritornare sull’argomento dell’importanza della robotica – ed in particolare di quella Marina – per il nostro Paese, potendo fornire al contempo notizie ottimistiche e confortanti dalla riunione di Europ, svoltasi a latere del convegno.

Europ è la European Robotics Platform promossa da Euron - European Robotics Research Network, dal Robotic Action Group e da molte industrie di automazione e robotica europee, allo scopo di rafforzare la posizione europea nel sistema ricerca/industria della robotica industriale e di servizio. L’obiettivo dell’iniziativa è ottenere per la robotica la certificazione di “piattaforma tecnologica europea” e una importante posizione di riconoscimento nell’ambito del Settimo Programma Quadro (7FP), che si prevede, avrà la durata di sette anni, al fine di superare le incertezze e la insufficiente presenza del settore nel precedente 6FP. Ottimismo e grinta sembravano pervadere il clima del meeting a Barcellona.

Ma anche i dati grezzi sono confortanti. Nel 2003, a livello mondiale, il settore della robotica ha visto una crescita degli investimenti di un tasso a due cifre: nel Nord America, del 28%; in Giappone, quasi del 25%. In Europa, del 4%: qui, la relativamente modesta crescita del mercato va letta alla luce del fatto che, con le eccezioni del 1997, del 2001 e del 2003, la robotica europea ha già vissuto, dal 1994, tassi di crescita a due cifre. Questi dati provengono dal World Robotics Survey 2004 dell’Unece, la Commissione dell’Onu per l’Europa.

Con 800,000 unità robotiche operanti nel mondo (ma, compresi gli stock, potrebbero essere un milione di unità), il segmento maggiore è sempre quello dei robot industriali, di cui 350,000 in Giappone, circa 250,000 nell’Unione Europea e 112,000 nel Nord America. In Europa, l’Italia è seconda, con 50,000; in testa la Germania, con 112,700 unità, terza la Francia con 26,000.

Tra il 1994 e il 2001 si è registrata in Italia una crescita senza precedenti degli investimenti in robot, e nel periodo 2004-2007, si prevede una crescita media annua del mercato italiano del 5%, per arrivare ad uno stock di robot di oltre 63,000 unità. In Italia, per ogni 10,000 persone occupate nell’industria manifatturiera italiana alla fine del 2003 erano presenti 116 robot industriali. Questo dato pone l’Italia al secondo posto in Europa, prima la Germania.

Per quanto riguarda altri settori, sempre maggiore importanza stanno guadagnando i robot di servizio per uso professionale e per uso privato. Dei primi, la parte del leone la fanno i robot sottomarini, con 4,785 unità stoccate alla fine del 2003, ed una tendenza alla crescita degli investimenti nel settore.

Questi dati dimostrano la crescente importanza della robotica in tutti i settori marino-marittimi, dove i robot sottomarini, i robot impiegati nella cantieristica e nelle riparazioni navali ed i robot impiegati nella logistica portuale diventeranno fattore di competitività per le nazioni e le industrie più lungimiranti.

Gianmarco Veruggio *

* Presidente della Scuola di Robotica di Genova.

E-mail: gianmarco@veruggio.it

Robotics Revenge!

Towards EUROP: the European Technological Platform on Robotics

A joint group of robotics scientist and manufactures, promotes the upgrading of Robotics in the coming European Union’s 7th Framework Program through the creation of Europ, the European Technology Platform (ETP) in the area of Robotics

Actually, robotics is in a bull phase, According to the World Robotics 2004 (UNECE-IFR) In first half of 2004, orders for robots were up another 18% to the highest level ever recorded. Worldwide growth in the period 2004-2007 forecast at an average annual rate of about 7% Over 600,000 household robots in use – several millions in the next few years.

In 2003, the robot market in North America surged by 28%, by close to 25% in Japan and by 4% in the European Union. The modest growth in the European Union market should, however, be seen in the light of the fact that with the exception of 1997 and 2001-2002, the European Union has had double-digit market growth since 1994.

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White-Box for Clean Shipowners

Sweden-based company Marinfloc AB is the world’s first manufacturer of Emulsion Breaking Bilge Water Cleaning System (EBBWCS) offering a White-Box system, allowing shipowners to prove their environmental-friendly attitude.

The new direct support for surveillance of discharged bilge water will be launched and introduced at Nor-Shipping, Oslo. The fully automatic white-box system keeps track of discharged water, and automatically reports the results to a new support service at Marinfloc AB.

EBBWCS-information is automatically transmitted together with GPS-information via the ship’s ordinary e-mail system. Marinfloc AB then keeps record of the vessels’ discharged bilge water, evaluates the results and reports back to the Shipowners or Ship Managers.

It is thanks to the new types of oil contents meters fulfilling MEPC 107 (49), such as the RTE “Smartcell” and Deckma OMD 2005, that trustworthy and accurate measurement now is possible. For example, contrary to traditional oil contents meters, these new instruments also gauge the oil contents in oil/water emulsions.

Shipowners, who wish to stand out as environmental-friendly, have herewith a chance to become independently “audited” by Marinfloc AB, proving that they are not involved in any unlawful discharging of bilge water.

For more information www.marinfloc.com

Magazine on-line www.TTMmagazine.com

Friday, 27May 2005

IMO AB launches Spares Master

Sweden-based IMO AB, a member of the Colfax Group renowned for their three-screw pumps since the 20ies, launches a new unique, web-based and interactive electronic spare part catalogue, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Complete for all IMO-pumps including drawings and prices, the new user friendly Spares Master holds detailed information on each and every spare part available, hence simplifying the process of identifying spare parts, drawings and prices for all IMO Pumps.

Spares Master has been used internally at IMO AB since last September as well as by a limited number of external users since a few months back. The feedback is said to be excellent, and is now going live for selected IMO customers. The system is experienced as user-friendly and very easy to use. It is also said to be unique, since no other pump manufacturer is said to have something equal.

For information www.imo.se

Magazine on-line www.TTMmagazine.com

Friday, 27May 2005

New range of High-Pressure Switches by Danfoss

Denmark-based specialist in pressure and temperature products, Danfoss A/S, launches a new range of high-pressure switches, supplementing the well-known pressure switch family MBC 5100.

Impossible to visually differentiate from the well-proven low-pressure switches, the new members of the MBC-5100 family for high pressure measurement are designed with a completely new piston to convert the pressure. This opens up for new dimensions in high-pressure measurement, now allowing for an extraordinary mechanical lifetime of over 1 million cycles.

The pressure conversion by means of a piston forms the basis for the extraordinary long mechanical lifetime of the switch. Another feature is the extended temperature range, allowing the switch to operate also at lower ambient temperatures.

Typically, the high-pressure switch is part of a hydraulic power pack, which monitors and triggers alarms for applications such as propulsion, controllable pitch propellers, gears, winches, cranes, anchoring systems etc.

Characteristics:

• Pressure ranges 16-160 bar, 25-250 bar, 50 - 400 bar

• Extraordinary mechanical lifetime (>1 mill cycles)

• Ambient temperature down to -40°C

• High reliability

• High switch point accuracy by repeating cycles

• High stability and vibration-durability

For information www.danfoss.com/ic

Magazine on-line www.TTMmagazine.com

Friday, 27May 2005

SAM Electronics a major contributor to EU Safedor Research Project

SAFEDOR is an Integrated Project (IP) within the EU’s 6th Framework Programme. An acronym for Design, Operation and Regulation for Safety, the main objective of the project focuses on risk-based ship design and approval.

Over 50 partners from the European maritime industry have commenced a new approach to safety of knowledge concerning ships such as Ro-Ro’s, cruiseliners, gas tankers and container vessels.

The European Commission supports the project with a grant of €12 million, with the project running over a period of 4 years. The project was launched on 15 February with an inaugural meeting at the headquarters of Germanischer Lloyd who act as the Project Coordinator, liaising directly with the Commission.