International Demand for HATLAPA’s Research Winches
Research vessels require their equipment to be reliable and able to work in adverse conditions. HATLAPA Marine Equipment prides itself in being able to offer a diverse portfolio of deck machinery with a selection of winches specifically designed for research vessels.
HATLAPA’s expertise as well as the ability to customise its standard winches has yielded quick orders. The German marine equipment supplier has manufactured winches and specialist deck machinery for many years and enjoys a stellar reputation within the industry. Several German research vessels, such as Polarstern, Sonne, Meteor and Maria S. Merian have HATLAPA branded research winches on board. These orders show recognition of the high quality of the equipment as well as a sign of customer trust. After a short negotiation period in 2009 with the Spanish shipyard Construcciones Navales P. Freire, HATLAPA received an order for a complete set of winches for their new build vessel C-661 for delivery in 2011.
The contract for this vessel was HATLAPA’s first contract to supply a complete winch package to a Spanish shipyard. The package contains hydraulically driven winches for several different applications including winches for fisheries research and hydrographics. For these activities, three winches were installed to carry out work for bottom and water sampling via CTD-rosette and side scan sonar applications.
The hydrographic winches handle streamer cables which are fitted with hydrophones that transmit data to the ship’s laboratory in real time. The streamer cables are highly sensitive and therefore need to be handled carefully especially in adverse conditions. In order to maintain the integrity of the streamers, the winches have sophisticated spooling devices controlled by software patented by HATLAPA. The software enables the user to minimise the sideways force on the rope and that way allow for more accurate data.
“By offering a specifically designed portfolio of products we are acknowledging the importance and growing demand of high quality products in this field”, states Jörg Tollmien, Managing Director of HATLAPA Marine Equipment. “The fleet support and maintenance programmes available from HATLAPA make us the perfect partner at any stage of equipping a research vessel, and the strong service focus of the HATLAPA group ensures that assistance is available worldwide.”