MTNW Updates US Army Corp Dredge Potter Mooring Monitoring System

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.

“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.

“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.

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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Line Control Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Slickline Monitoring With DynaWinch

One of our leading partners, DynaWinch, out of Calgary, Alberta, has been working with the MTNW LCI-90i display for years to bring decimal point accuracy to their arsenal of down-hole tools and applications.

Recently, DynaWinch has incorporated our displays (both the LCI-90i and the LCI-80) into their new product line of slickline skid units. They now manufacture electrically, hydraulically, and diesel driven skid based units for all types of environments and needs.

Their product line includes aluminum wireline van bodies for slickline, case hole, and open hole logging, mast units, swabbing rigs, and wireline skids for on-shore and off-shore applications. And, their wireline accessories include hydraulic drawworks packages, customized control panels, measuring systems, spoolers, and down hole tools.

The picture below shows Tom Rezanka, Managing Director of MTNW’s LCI product line, sitting at the controls of a DynaWinch wireline van built for one of their customers. Notice the beautiful display immediately in front of Tom. If Tom were an operator, that display would provide him with line tension, speed, and payout information through its electroluminescent (day-light readable screen) at line data sampling rates of over 200Hz! The display will also provide the operator with the ability to store up to 14 different tension and payout calibrations with automatic recall.

Michael Fernquist, Technical Project Manager for DynaWinch, explains to Tom how the operators use the controls and display information in their job.

Here is a picture of the MTNW 90i display incorporated into a an electrically driven wireline skid unit. You can see that our displays are built for rugged, all-weather conditions. If you thought our electroluminescent displays look good in the sun, you should see them in the rain!

Tags: LCI-80, LCI-90i, Line Tension, Slick line monitoring, Slickline Monitoring, Well Servicing Monitoring, winch payout, winch tension

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 7:06 pm and is filed under Line Control Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.