Page 15: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2012)

The scientific research winch package includes six different winches with lifting capacities of 3.1to 37.6 tons for a giant piston corer operation at extreme water depths. On the fisheries side, there are two Rapp TWS 7590E-T90 trawl winches, each with 35 tons of first-layer line pull. A net drum with dividers for the sweep lines is also included, along with two smallerutility winches. Symbolic of the scale of the deck machinery package, the new vessel will include no less than three winch rooms?and yet even with such accommodations, space issues have posed a great challenge. Approximately 180 tons of deck and handling machinery, with an installed-power footprint of 1800 kW, has posed special challenges in design. In close cooperation with SSPL/Teekay and RALion, Rapp staff are continuing work on best possible options for operational lay-out, wire-routing and weight-reduc- tion approaches. The CSIRO contract allows Rapp and Triplex to showcase latest tech- nologies. Among others, the electricwinch package features VFDs (vari- able-frequency drives) of the AFE (Active Front End) type. Drive volt- age is 690-volt AC, 3-phase, 50 Hertz. Given the challenges of Arctic-Antarctic operations, winches are to be placed below decks in order to reduce corrosion and ice-ups. Another newer technology aboard will be an Active Heave Compensation (AHC) package;Rapp has provided this technology to several customers in recent years, especially in the ROV and offshore oil sectors. The winches are also equipped with Rapp?s electrically- driven, electronic synchronized level wind systems, for easy adjustmentand change in the spooling pitch.Rapp is also providing its patented liquid-cooled motor, a technology which earn it the Offshore Technology Conference innovative technology award last year, to power some of the winches. Finally, Rapp is providing its latest mission-specif- ic upgrades of its long-running PTS Pentagon winch control technology, in the Research C-Bus version (for the scientific winch package man-agement) and Fisheries C-Bus (for the fishery winches suite). The Pentagon management system offers tension control and auto-rendering features, among various others. The Triplex side of the package is similarly impressive in its scope with the special focus on efficient and safehandling of the different scientific packages. A 30-ton telescopic corer boom, a Multi-Corer Pipe Handler, Corer Pipe Davits, a 20-ton Aft A- Frame with 170-degree stroke and a 6-ton CTD Overhead Crane are just the highlights. There are two sub- stantial power units, totaling 180kW, and two pair of Towing Booms (fore and aft) as well. R/V Investigator(Graphic courtesy of Alion Science) MTR#1 (1-17):MTR Layouts 1/4/2012 2:32 PM Page 15