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.

US Coast Guard Uses an MTNW Running Line Tensiometer for R&D

Through one of our partners, Dillon Quality Plus, the Coast Guard purchased and used our HRT-3mm Running Line Tensiometer (or line rider) to measure the cable tension loads during some qualification testing on an improved rescue hoist for the Coast Guard H-65 Dolphin Helicopter.

The hoist was improved by adding a clutch designed to release if the cable forces exceed a known value.  The Coast Guard tested the release force pulling on the cable at various speeds from 1 in/s to 30 in/s.  After the hoist passed this testing, the Coast Guard then conducted a number of drop tests that consisted of a 600 pound mass attached to the end of the cable and various amounts of slack in the cable from 1 to 5ft.

During all testing, the tensiometer (or dynamometer) was attached to the cable and the load output was recorded.  The HRT-3mm system worked perfectly.

The HRT-3mm is designed to measure running line cable tension loads from 0-13,000 lbs.  It only weighs 30lbs and is compact but reliable.

Tags: cable tension monitoring, calibration, Coast Guard, HH-65C, HH-65C Dolphin Helicopter, Injured Hiker, Line Rider, Line Tension, Running Line Tensiometer, Search and Rescue, tensiometers, tension meter, winch payout, winch tension

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 3:34 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.