LCI-90i

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.

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).

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

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.

Barge Anchor Winch Monitoring in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 at 8:53 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.

Measurement Technology Support Scripps With New Winch Monitoring Technology

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

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 20th, 2011 at 2:17 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.

Aerostat Winch Monitoring With Allied Power

There is growing demand for lighter than air, near space systems that can carry aloft wide-area communications, broadband, and sensing devices to meet the requirements of military and commercial customers for network connectivity and ready access to mission critical information. Aerostats, which are commonly referred to as blimps, play an important role in our nation’s rapid response communications infrastructure – from supporting climate research and natural disaster response to combating terrorism and providing deploy-able “eyes in the sky” for our military personnel in the field.

MTNW provides aerostat monitoring hardware and data-logging software to several manufacturers involved with aerostat ground systems here in the United States.

One of our long-time partners, Allied Power out of Beaverton, OR (www.alliedpower.com), is using our LCI-90i smart display to view tension, speed, and payout data from the winches that power their aerostat ground station controls.

For this application, Allied Powers’ winch (EHS-5-43D hoist system) can store up to 4,400 feet of 1/2 ” diameter fiber optic cable and control the ascent and descent of the aerostat balloon at speeds up to 115 feet per minute while providing up to 5,500 lbs. of single line pull capacity.

You can see our LCI-90i display in the image above just to the left of the control joystick. Our display provides Applied Power and their customers with unmatched durability, reliability, and accuracy, thanks to features that include fast line tension sampling rates (up to 200Hz), a rugged and high-temp range capability (-45ºC to 75ºC), and direct sunlight viewability with our industry-leading electroluminescent screen.

Allied Power’s system includes variable speed payout and recovery via proportional joystick controls, and to support these functions the LCI-90i provides programmable alarms (high and low limits to tension and speed/payout settings) to allow for ease of use and additional operator safety.

MNTW is excited about our partnership with APPI and their 25 year history of providing winches, hoists, and positioning systems to industrial, commercial, and military customers. We are proud to be part of a rapidly growing solution for our nations critical communications infrastructure.

Tags: Allied Power, APPI, Communication Infrastructure, Hoists, LCI-90i, Positioning Systems, winch payout, winch tension, Winches

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 5:27 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.