Kongsberg Maritime: United, Diverse

Kongsberg Maritime can provide complete integrated systems and solutions across the board. The systems available range from hydroacoustic survey solutions and subsea autonomous vehicles and transponders, through DP, Automation, Navigation and Simulation. The company has enjoyed recent success, and is energized for 2004 and beyond via the amalgamation of Kongsberg Simrad, Kongsberg Maritime Ship Systems (KMSS) and The Marine IT Company (MARITCO); all separate Kongsberg companies until the official merger date of January 1, 2004. Kongsberg Maritime is now the home to the hydroacoustic and DP expertise that made Kongsberg Simrad a leader in the offshore market. The ship electronics capabilities of KMSS and the sophisticated software coming out of MARITCO complete the full picture to offer the marine industry a portfolio for most applications.

"Kongsberg's marine companies have always been major players in their respective fields but bringing them closer together under the Kongsberg Maritime banner means that the experience and expertise throughout the organisation can be shared and utilized in a much more efficient manner," said Torfin Kildal, President. Kongsberg Maritime. "The companies still provide solutions within specific remits but as Kongsberg Maritime. As a united force we can provide the marine and offshore sectors with solutions for almost every conceivable electronics application on a vessel, platform or under the sea. We like to call it the full picture." Kongsberg Seatex stays a separate division of the Kongsberg Maritime group, but its products in the position reference sectors including its AIS infrastructure business will be marketed under the Kongsberg Maritime banner.

Kongsberg Maritime offers a broad range of products and solutions, including DP, Automation and Software.

The AutoChief C20 propulsion control system, first announced at Nor-Shipping 2003, has received a good deal of attention and, more importantly, early orders.

AutoChief embodies a striking minimalist design, but the unit offers both form and function. By reducing the amount of buttons and controls on the panel itself operation of the propulsion control system has been simplified, leaving crewmembers to concentrate on more complex actions. AutoChief C20 is actually the fifth generation AutoChief, with the first AutoChief appearing in 1967. So Kongsberg Maritime certainly has the technology to back up the grand design, but this new interface has taken it in an entirely new direction. When quizzed about plans for the design of Kongsberg Maritime's other bridge equipment, Ole Gunnar Hvam, VP Navigation and Automation said, "We will follow the AutoChief closely and listen to feedback from the users before we commit to the direction of the design of our other bridge equipment." The design is proving popular already though, with the Norwegian Design Council recently awarding the AutoChief C20 a sought after design award.

Newbuild and Retrofit Kongsberg also has a busy refit department.

"It's not just about providing Kongsberg's high quality systems, it's about providing integrated solutions in a timely fashion with the least disruption to the vessels operation," said Roy J.

Larsen, Marketing Manager, Refit Systems, Kongsberg Maritime. This awareness of the market has been demonstrated with the completion of several refit projects already this year, not least a project involving 14 Royal Norwegian Navy Hauk Class MTBs.

The initial refit contract was for the supply and installation of Kongsberg Maritime's DC 2000 alarm and engine control system. As the project developed, Kongsberg Maritime continued to research new technology in parallel and the final specification on all 14 MTBs has become the DataChief C20 alarm, engine control and manoeuvring system.

The DataChief C20 is one of Kongsberg Maritime's most requested systems for retrofit. Kongsberg Maritime Sweden AB retrofitted a DataChief C20 system with WatchCall, Deadman and Power Management System (PMS), onboard the Stena Germanica. It also completed a full automation systems refit onboard the 20,000 ton passenger/car ferry the M/S Jupiter, which was the first vessel to install Kongsberg Maritime's DataChief C20 system some five years ago.

Circle 1 0 on Reader Service Card