Instrumented A-frame Sheaves – A Big Skookum Sheave
Monday, March 26th, 2012
We worked with Supreme Integrated Technologies (of Harahan, LA) and Skookum, an Ulven Forging company (or Hubbard, OR), to build a 6 foot tall and 3.5 foot wide sheave.
To provide payout and speed monitoring, we needed to install targets on the side of the sheave and a sensor on the side plate. We installed 40 magnets equally spaced at 6 inch intervals on the side of the sheave. The single barrel, dual channel Hall Effect sensor will provide an accurate quadrature or square waveform when it crosses a magnet.
Our LCI-90i display converts these dual channel (90 degrees out of phase) square waves into speed, payout, and direction. If there is no slipping of the rope through the sheave, the 6 inch spacing of the magnets will provide 3.4” resolution at all distances…100’ or 10,000’.
To instrument this sheave for tension (or load) we developed a load pin that fit the bale of a standard Skookum shackle. The shackle was required to be installed in an upset orientation to minimize the stack height of the sheave assembly on the A-Frame. This will also allow the sheave assembly its full range of motion and provide accurate tension readings.
Changes in the rope wrap angle can cause errors in the tension readings. Instrumented hanging block sheave assemblies are notorious for this. To mitigate the changing wrap angle error, we had to calibrate the instrumented shackle for two angles (e.g. fully deployed and a fully onboard A-frame positions). A simple external selector switch integrated to the LCI-90i, will allow the operator to easily change tension calibration coefficients.
This is exactly the kind of interesting, non-standard project that our engineers like to dive into from time to time.
If you have questions about instrumenting existing sheaves or interesting tension monitoring applications, give us a call.
Instrumented Skookum Sheave
Tags: instrumented sheave, large cable monitoring, Line Tension, sheave, sheave assembly, sheave instrumentation, skookum, Supreme Integrated Technologies, tension measurement, tension monitoring, Ulven Forging
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
MTNW is Ready for Liftoff – BOSIET Offshore Helicopter Training
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
BOISET Training Program
Recently, one of our engineers, Adam Przybilla, went through this training. The first day of class started with an introduction to helicopter safety and escape. The class covered the equipment required for helicopter transportation and the procedures to survive the hazards that can be encountered while taking a helicopter to an offshore installation. Every student wore a full transit survival suit, aviation flight jacket and a re-breather. A helicopter simulator was used to place the student in a position of an over-turned helicopter in the water. The level of difficulty progressed through the six “dunkings”. The last “dunking” involved the helicopter simulator rotating upside-down under water and to escape the student had to push through an emergency exit while engaging and relying on a re-breather.
BOSIET Firefighting Training
The knowledge and experienced gained in the three day class prepares our personnel for situations and hazards that are common in the offshore industry.
We are prepared and ready to support our offshore customers on a moment’s notice anywhere in the world.
Tags: adam przybilla, BOSIET, cable tension, firefighter training, offshore oil and gas
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
Unique Load Pins for Dry-dock Instrumentation
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
We are frequently approached to provide custom load cells, load pins, instrumented shackles, tension links, and compression load cells for a wide variety of applications.
Half the fun of our job is learning about our customers’ businesses, the way they make a living, their unique applications and how load sensing can improve safety.
In the last year, we have been approached to provide load sensing on:
- A six winch dry-dock in Russia
- The lowering of a 750,000lb Oil & Gas tree to the bottom of the GOM
- Seismic vessels in Norway
- Tug boat owners in the UAE, in the UK, and in Eastern Canada
- Pipe-lay barges in Nigeria, GOM, and Peru
In terms of measuring line or cable tension, we will often supply a running line tensiometer (or cable line-rider) with a load pin pre-installed. Here is link to our line riders.
In other applications, our customers may have an existing sheave that we can help instrument.
Recently, a dry-dock operator came to us and wanted, for the first time, to install tension measurement on the dry dock maneuvering system. Because they were using large diameter poly rope and they had existing turning sheaves with fixed wrap angles, we provided replacement load pins to retrofit the sheave axles.
Here is an image of the 130,000lbs pins. They were approximately 12” long x 7” in diameter and weighed almost 65lbs each. Despite their size they are sensitive enough that a couple of lbs of pressure will register in their mA output.
If you have a unique application, give us a call.
Load Pins
Tags: 000lbs load pins, 130, custom, dry dock, dry dock manuvering, instrumentation, instrumented shackles, line riders, measurement, system, tension links, tension measurement, unique load pins
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
MTNW Updates US Army Corp Dredge Potter Mooring Monitoring System
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
November 7, 2011. Seattle, WA. Measurement Technology NW (MTNW) announces successful implementation of its running line tensiometer technology with the US Army Corp of Engineers Dredge Potter. MTNW collaborated with C&J Offshore and Ockerman Consulting to ensure the mooring line monitoring project was successful from the initial design to the final installation and commissioning.
The US Army Corp of Engineers Dredge Potter is based near St. Louis and is charged with keeping the Mississippi passable. The Potter is a 240’ diesel electric vessel with a draft of 7’6″. It was recently retrofit during a deckhouse rebuild with a new haul winch and head hoist control system in 2011. The USACE contracted with Jensen Maritime Consultants (a Crowley company) and Ockerman Consulting to design the control system. C&J Offshore systems from Anacortes, WA were contracted to manufacture consoles and install these new controls. Ockerman Consulting chose MTNW’s Line Control Instrument RL-20175K 3-sheave running line tensiometers (RLTs) to monitor 2 mooring/hauling winches with 1.125″ wire rope with a peak tension requirement of 84,000lbs.
USACE Dredge Potter II
“The MTNW line riders installed quickly and easily. The RLTs are obviously built for a rugged environment and will have many years of service,” said John Ockerman, Owner, Ockerman Consulting. “The displays are intuitive and easy to work with. If you look at the whole bridge control console, from analog sweep meters to the standard PC HMI, the MTNW LCI-90i bright display jumps out at you from across the bridge.” The RLTs are integrated with the Dredge Automation Systems and Shipboard Integrated Control & Monitoring Systems. This system’s architecture provides real time and historic data to the ship’s engineers and dredge production performance data remotely to USACE headquarters.
Dredge Potter Controls
“MTNW RLTs are being used more frequently for mooring monitoring because our design provides a smaller footprint and rapidly deployable solution for retrofitting existing winches,” said Tom Rezanka, Managing Director of MTNW. “We can deploy on virtually any winch, with an installation time measured in hours, not weeks or months. In every environment, our customers are interested in monitoring and data-logging possible points of failure; and the mooring lines are a critical part of any dredge operations .”
Rezanka explains, “This is MTNW’s first installation on a dust pan dredge on the Mississippi. Our RLTs are frequently used to monitor pipe lay barges for offshore oil & gas installations around the world. We are pleased to be supporting the USACE here in the USA.
Measurement Technology NW, a Seattle, Wash. based company, provides a wide range of precision winch monitoring and control products, including the LCI-90i and LCI-80 (winch displays), WinchDAC (winch monitoring software), running line tensiometers or line riders, and much more. Look for MTNW at the Workboat Show, New Orleans, November 28 – Dec 1, 2011 (Booth 2566).
Contact us! Call us at 206-634-1308, or send an email to lci@mtnw-usa.com.
Running Line Tensiometer on Dredge Potter
Tags: dredge, dust pan dredge, LCI, LCI-80, LCI-90i, Line Rider, line riders, mississippi river dredging, mooring line tensiometer, mooring monitoring, MTNW, Running Line Tensiometer, St. Louis district, Workboat show
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
MTNW & Delmar – New Approaches to Offshore Mooring
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
Delmar RLT
Measurement Technology NW (MTNW) implemented its running line tensiometer (RLT) technology with a Samson synthetic rope in an offshore mooring monitoring project engineered by Delmar Systems. This implementation is MTNW’s first use of tension measurement technology with 2”+ synthetic ropes.
Recently, Delmar Systems was contracted to moor an offshore supply vessel (OSV) to a major offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The OSV is being used as a support vessel while dive operations are conducted. The OSV is using a three-point mooring system consisting of two stern hawser lines attached to the platform and a bow mooring line attached to a preset suction pile foundation in 2,900 feet of water. The mooring system had to be as robust as possible while still maintaining ease of handling and rigging by the vessel crew.
To achieve a higher Maximum Breaking Load on the OSV bow mooring line while maintaining deck maneuverability, Delmar chose Samson’s AmSteel-Blue HMPE rope made of high modulus polypropylene (HMPE) as the bow winch line. An MTNW RL-20175K running line tensiometer provided tension measurement for the bow line. During the design phase of the project, MTNW thoroughly tested and calibrated the RLT using the specified 2¼” AmSteel-Blue rope.
“This is MTNWs first use of an RLT to measure tension in a major synthetic mooring line of this large diameter,” said Tom Rezanka, managing director of MTNW. “Our RLTs are more commonly used to measure the tension of wire rope, but synthetic lines have different mechanical characteristics under load. We were able to collaborate closely with the R&D engineers at Samson. The monitoring system was fully tested, calibrated and witnessed on an ABS-certified test bed with the resulting accuracy identical to wire rope applications. The trend in mooring is lighter and stronger, which will require increased use of synthetic ropes and new, modern technologies to monitor them. Our sensors and systems are proven to work with any lines.”
“Both the AmSteel-Blue winch line and MTNW’s RLT have been working flawlessly together and have played a vital role in the success of the project,” said Dillon Shuler, engineer at Delmar Systems. Rezanka explains, “MTNW RLTs are being used more frequently for mooring monitoring because our modern design provides a rapidly deployable solution for retrofitting existing winches. We can deploy on virtually any winch, with an installation time measured in hours, not weeks or months.”
“Since the Macondo oil spill, we have seen a significant increase in interest from risk managers and lifting/rigging engineers for determining line and cable tensions in all environments,” said Rezanka. “If it can be monitored, alerted on, and data-logged to a computer it needs to be. Our solutions support the increasing safety requirements for offshore operations and allow project managers to sleep better at night.”
Original article can be found at: http://www.marinelink.com/news/approaches-offshore340216.aspx
Tags: cable tension, delmar, Line Tension, MTNW, RLT, Running Line Tensiometer, Samson synthetic rope, tensiometers, tension measurement
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
Cable Lay Operations – Gulf of Mexico
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Tension Monitoring for Subsea Cable Laying
In subsea cable laying operations, it is imperative to understand the tension on the cable that you are laying on the ocean floor. Too little tension and the cable will potentially kink under the vessel, too tight and the cable could break internally. Once a cable has been bent or broken the entire span is unusable.
Subsea Cable Laying Ship
Often subsea cables will cost millions of dollars and the laying of the cable is a high-profile event with many observers…the cable manufacturer, the insurance company, the cable laying service providers and the vessel operators. Everyone eager to ensure (and prove) that their piece of the operation doesn’t stress the cable.
Subsea Cable Laying
In March, one of our engineers flew down to Mexico to support a leading Oil & Gas services company in Mexico. The service provider was working with PEMEX to lay a 2 mile subsea electrical and communications cable between 2 offshore platforms. This service provider purchased a running line tensiometer (RLT) from MTNW to measure the tension, speed, and payout of the tugger winch cable which was used to pull the subsea cable into place.
You can see in the picture below that a RL-05K running line tensiometer was used to measure the tension, speed, and payout (scope) of the cable.
The MTNW RL-05 Running Line Tensiometer
This is our smallest RLT with a wire rope diameter limit of 20mm and a tension range of up to 13,000lbs. They also purchased the LCI-90i winch display which provides tension, speed, and payout data. This display is installed in a Pelican case for portability. For data-logging they connected the LCI-90i display to a local PC and installed our WinchDAC (winch monitoring) software which provides all of the graphing and long-term data storage that they could need. WinchDAC provides Demar the opportunity print out the force-over-time graphs , which can illustrate the peak tension of the cable lay operation.
The LCI-90i display in a Pelican Case connected to WinchDAC for data-logging.
WinchDAC Line Graph – Tension, Speed, & Payout
This cable lay operation was a success and the service provider, insurance company, and customer all had the real-time monitoring and data-logging to prove it.
Tags: cable lay operation, cable ship, cable tension, line control instrument, line control systems, line measurement, MTNW, subsea cable laying, tension measurement, tension monitoring
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
MTNW & Adamac – Anchor Winch Monitoring for Pipelay Barge
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
Here is the press release regarding the Adamac project described in the blog post below.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011bargemooring/03anchorwinchmonitoring/prweb5175084.htm
Tags: Adamac, anchor winch, anchor winch monitoring, Measurement Technology NW, offshore oil, winch monitoring
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
Barge Anchor Winch Monitoring in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
This January we had the opportunity to bring our barge winch monitoring system to Port Harcourt, Nigeria in support of a local oil and gas services company based there.
The Gulf of Guinea is one of the hot new oil patches and it is becoming as criss-crossed with sub-sea pipes as any ocean in the world. Oil companies operating there have to be very careful about where they place their anchors for mooring. And, they need to know immediately if one of their anchors is slipping and could potentially pull through other nearby pipelines. Hence their call to us. We have a growing reputation across the globe for building high-quality, rugged, anchor winch monitoring equipment.
For this barge, we installed nine, RL-20175K running line tensiometers and four local dual-winch displays. Four winches aft and four winches foward, the ninth RLT was for the A&R winch near the bow of the barge.
Here is an image of an RLT getting ready to be installed in front a winch. The hanging chain support allows the RLT to move with the rope as tension increases and decreases during an operation.
Running Line Tensiometer
Here is an image of the winches on the barge. These winches have 1-3/4” IWRC wire rope that will be tensioned up to 90,000lbs.
Winches on the barge
We integrated our LCI-90i Multi-Winch displays to their existing winch controls station. The LCI-90i Winch Displays provide precise tension, speed, and payout readings to the operator as well as preset alarm conditions to alert the crew of a hazardous operating condition. The PC monitors are used as video monitors of the winches and the deck of the barge.
LCI-90i Displays
We look forward to spending more time in Port Harcourt and developing partnerships in that beautiful part of the world.
Tags: anchor monitoring, anchor winch monitoring, barge line control, barge winch monitoring system, cable measurement, cable tension, dual-winch displays, LCI-90i, pipelay barge anchor winch monitoring, port harcourt, Running Line Tensiometer, running line tension, tensiometer
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
Trawl Winch System Monitoring
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Being from the Pacific Northwest, and specifically from the Norwegian/Fisherman’s Terminal area of Seattle, we have always thought that our products and services should play a bigger role in the fishing industry. And now, they are!
In the last year, we’ve started to sell trawl winch monitoring systems into the Pacific and Atlantic trawl fishing fleets.
Like most industries, winch operators in the fishing industry have worked from “gut feel” about how much tension or speed their winch systems, nets, and cables could support.
Now, however, active monitoring of trawl winches has become an important part of fishing efficiently, and data-logging from trawl casts is seen as an important review tool to ensure safety and maximize productivity.
Our combination of running line tensiometers (or dynamometers), local winch displays and software for the bridge are priced competitively with more established and specialized fishing technologies.
Below is an image of our running line tensiometer attached to an articulating arm riding the line of a trawl vessel.
Running Line Tensiometer
Here is an image of our TrawlDAC software showing how operators can quickly see differences in the line tension, speed and total payout.
Trawl DAC
If you are looking to retrofit your trawl monitoring system, please email or call. We’ll be happy to put together a plan for your vessel.
Tags: fishing industry, measurement, payout, Running Line Tensiometer, speed, tension, trawl measurement, trawl monitor, trawl software, trawl winch monitoring, TrawlDAC, winch monitoring
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
Measurement Technology Support Scripps With New Winch Monitoring Technology
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
Scripps: New Horizon, Sproul Scoreboard, LCI-90i on New Horizon
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or just Scripps) in La Jolla, California, is one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean and earth science research, graduate training, and public service in the world. Hundreds of ocean and earth researchers conduct scientific research with the aid of oceanographic research vessels and shorebased laboratories.
Scripps manages several research vessels including: RV Roger Revelle, RV Melville, RV New Horizon, RV Robert Gordon Sproul, and RP FLIP.
These vessels are floating laboratories so the winches are a mission critical element to the voyage. The winches are used in a wide variety of configurations; raising and lowering rosettes and CTDs, trawling, coring, AUV/ROV deployment, etc.. To ensure accuracy and safety, Scripps has used MTNW Line Control Instruments winch monitoring displays and software for over 15 years. Recently however, the UNOLS safety committee changed the winch monitoring standards for all vessels.
To help Scripps come into compliance with these new changes in Appendix A safety standards, MTNW engineers have been onsite in late 2010 to provide a fleet-wide upgrade to their winch monitoring systems. Our engineers provided new sensors, new wiring, upgraded LCI-90 to LCI-90i displays, installed several large scoreboard displays, and provided data-logging software.
According to the changes in Appendix A, for the highest factor of safety, the operators are required to monitor their winches at least 20 times per second for data-logging, 10 times per second for a display screen and have access to an on screen graph of line tension. The MTNW LCI-90i display combined with our WinchDAC software can provide this level of information monitoring seamlessly.
We are excited to be helping modernize Scripps research vessels and we look forward working with the rest of the UNOLS vessels for the next 15 years.
Tags: instrumentation, LCI device, LCI-90i, New Horizon, oceanographic research, SCRIPPS, Sproul Scoreboard, winch custom installation, winch monitoring, winch monitoring system, WinchDAC software
Posted in Line Control Systems | No Comments »
