Mooring specialists throw down challenge to tradition
Through its vacuum-based mooring systems, the company says vessels can be secured on average 12 seconds faster than via traditional methods. Furthermore, with no need for mooring gangs, cargo operations can also commence sooner.
"For thousands of years the maritime industry has relied on the use of ropes to secure vessels," says the company.
"It has been a reliable system but is now somehow out of synch with the maritime industry's focus on continuous improvements in productivity and efficiency."
With ports forming a vital link in the global supply chain, Cavotec MoorMaster it is under constant pressure to find new efficiencies and contribute to trade-oriented economic development.
"Mooring with lines has several inherent weaknesses which result in unsatisfactory or even dangerous situations.
"For any problem that conventional mooring methods are unable to solve, Cavotec MoorMaster can provide a customised solution. These solutions are of particular interest if the mooring operation has limited space and manpower, excessive vessel motion, time constraints, or unusually-shaped vessels.
"The case studies carried out highlight several of the more important and far-reaching results the MoorMaster systems can have on port operation, efficiency, economy and safety.
"A tradition of thousands of years cannot be abandoned overnight. However, in the future ports and the shipping industry have no choice but to invest in new technology to continually work towards excellence."
Another company pushing the envelope in the mooring sector is TTS Port Equipment, through its range of semi-auto-mooring and auto-mooring vacuum or grip-arm equipment.
TTS Port Equipment sales manager Håkan Jönsson says both ship owners and port authorities are showing interest in achieving "more efficient port handling with shorter harbour stop and less personnel-intensive handling".
"Another aspect is the heaviness and risk of injury by handling traditional mooring ropes in the port, especially during nights - and in the North of Europe for instance the snow and icy (frosty) conditions is an issue for improvements," he says.
Mr Jönsson says the benefit/risk of considering the new equipment and the return on investment, training costs and durability of product needs to be assessed on an individual basis.
"Of course, there must be a benefit. But this varies a lot from case to case and a different customer looks into different values for the investment costs.
"Our product is a new product - even if the first installation was installed in the last decade - for the market and hereby the risks and improvements … are to be considered by the port company."
