New Electric Marine Winches

Danfoss Editron has partnered with Kongsberg Evotec, part of the Kongsberg Maritime international technology group, to develop a fully electric-powered marine winch powered by Danfoss Editron, electric drivetrain system. Applications include vessels used in offshore industries such as fishing, research and seismic, as well as those taking part in on-water construction projects for offshore wind farms.

The Editron drivetrain for the Kongsberg Evotec marine winch system is comprised of reluctance-assisted permanent magnet motors. These save  weight and space in the deck handling equipment, Danfoss said, both of which are a scarce resource in a marine vessel and needed for payload purposes.

The first two electric winch systems, featuring the new Danfoss Editron drivetrain solutions, have been supplied to the offshore and seismic markets. In early 2019, the first large-scale project will be commissioned and delivered from Havyard in Leirvik, Norway after going through full-scale interface and functionality testing, with 10 winches and 20 drives and motors in total being installed on a pelagic trawler.

Additionally, a Launch and Recovery System featuring a dual motor fed by two inverters and Kongsberg Evoteccontrol system has been delivered to a Norwegian customer for start-up and commissioning in Turkey.

As well as the standard drivetrain functions and safety,this system includes heave compensating functionality, where power efficiency and regeneration become major contributors to increased system performance and reduced operating costs, Danfoss said.

Danfoss Editron is also working with Kongsberg Evotecon an  automated deployment and retrieving system for seismic nodes, powered by its Editron software. The system, which will increase the speed and reduce the cost of ocean bottom seismic node operations, Danfoss said.

Further, integrating electric components into the winches allows them to be controlled remotely, making them more responsive to commands and providing functionality with tailored applications that can give direct upsides to operation safety and cost. This drives further efficiencies by lowering fuel costs and associated CO2 emissions.

The Editron winch application software also combines winch-specific functionalities, such as wire tension control and limit, speed control, position control and brake control. Additionally, several safety features are directly implemented into the drivetrain to ensure a quick response to any failure handling event. This is achieved by operating the drives in are redundant set-up and having this philosophy anchored into the drive/control interface architecture.