February 1977 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News

Western Gear Receives $3.4-Million Contract From Deepsea Ventures

The Heavy Machinery Division of Western Gear Corporation, 2600 East Imperial Highway, Lynwood, Calif. 90262, received a $3.4-million contract from Deepsea Ventures, Inc., Gloucester Point, Va., to design and build a system of machinery for installation aboard the R/V Deepsea Miner II, a 360-foot vessel outfitted for deep ocean mining.

The Miner II is equipped to test the Deepsea Ventures concept of mining the ocean floor for manganese nodules at a depth of 18,000 feet.

The Western Gear supplied system will store, transfer and suspend the pipe which is used to tow the dredge device along the ocean floor and conduct the nodules to the surface.

This dredge pipe is made up of sections which, when joined together, form a string approximately three and one-half miles long and weighing about one million pounds.

One of the unique requirements of this machinery system is that the dredge pipe must be isolated from the motions of the mining ship in order to prevent bending and subsequent failure. The suspension system is mounted on a gimbal which accommodates roll and pitch of the ship. The heave motions are isolated by the heavy compensating hydraulic cylinders.

The Heavy Machinery Division of Western Gear Corporation designs and manufactures mining, petroleum exploration and production and marine equipment used worldwide.

Western Gear Corporation, headquartered in Lynwood, Calif., is an international multimarket manufacturer involved in petroleum exploration and production, oil and gas extraction, mechanical power transmission, aerospace systems, air freight handling, building and heavy construction, marine engineering and naval construction, steel and aluminum furnaces, printing, process plants and utilities, and shipyard facilities.

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