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Home AssociationsCIRM New Daniamant Electronic inclinometer meets BV regulation enhancing tug boat safety

New Daniamant Electronic inclinometer meets BV regulation enhancing tug boat safety

by admin
Frances Baskerville, Senior Vice President CIRM**
Anders Rasmussen*

Introduction 

Safety in the operation of tugboats is of the utmost importance. With increasing pressure and efficiency of optimization in the shipping and marine industry, safety is paramount when tugboats and their crews are involved in highly risky work. As escort tugboats are becoming increasingly powerful to meet bigger operational capability for ever larger escorting vessels, in order to prevent accidents stability is a major concern.

 Background 

Bureau Veritas (BV) has to this extent, and for other safety and operational reasons, included certain criteria into its classification rules NR467 – January 2019 edition “Rules for the Classification of Steel Ships / Part E – Service Notations for Offshore Service Vessels and Tugs”. In section 3.2.1 it reads “Escort tugs are to be equipped with a calibrated heeling angle measurement system (inclinometer)”. In addition, an adjustable audible and visible alarm must provide a warning/alarm to the Master when heeling angle and/or steady towline force exceeds the  permissible value(s) applicable to the relevant loading conditions and escort speed; this, in combination with appropriate handling instructions, is  operationally effective. 

 DanEI-300T Electronic Inclinometer

The Danish marine safety equipment manufacturer Daniamant A/S has, with this background, recently launched its tugboat version of their well-known Electronic Inclinometer named DanEI-300T (T for Tugboat). The new DanEI-300T is, in principle, identical to the standard version DanEI-300, which consists of a sensor unit and a display (See picture fig. 1). The sensor includes a very advanced gyro MEMS component, a very advanced accelerometer MEMS component as well as a powerful microcontroller, and, through complex algorithms, the so-called “6 degrees of freedom” (6 D-o-F) are all accurately calculated. In other words, the 3 rotation parameters (pitch, heel, yaw) and the 3 acceleration parameters (surge, sway, heave) can be calculated. This data is sent from the sensor to the display unit, from which it is retrieved either via serial or Ethernet (marine) interface and in standard NMEA format. The system is self-calibrating and the sensor does not require a special location, as position to the tugboat’s centerline is calculated automatically. Installation can easily be made by a member of the tug’s crew.  

Fig.1 – DanEI-300T Display Sensor units.

Daniamant A/S has, on recommendation and advice from Robert Allan Ltd., the internationally-recognized Canadian high-performance tugs Naval Architects in Vancouver, based development around the user’s interface of the DanEI-300T. It is designed for ease of use as a ‘traffic light’ i.e. a green zone, an amber/yellow zone and a red zone, as shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3. The range of each zone can easily be entered and adjusted via the keypad on the front of the display. This means that the master and crew can continuously see the heeling of the tug and, if this goes from green to the amber/yellow zone, a clear audible alarm sounds;  also similar, an alarm sounds for the transition from amber/yellow to red zone. The heeling angle is measured in real time and is updated every 0.1 seconds. The display is with a 1-degree resolution and data is collected continuously in the display unit so that a maritime investigation authority can get detailed information on the sequence of events in the case of an accident.   

Fig. 2 – DanEI-300T Electronic Inclinometer display for tugboats.

Fig. 3 – ’Traffic Light’ indications for various zones.

The DanEI-300T is approved by German BSH (Bundesamt für Seeshifffart und Hydrographie) to the IMO performance standard MSC.363(92):2013 and as “Electronic Inclinometer for escort tugs” 

Conclusion

When combining new technology involving very advanced electronic devicesand sophisticated mathematical algorisms, together with new rules and regulations, the door is opened for increased  safety and ease of operation for escort and other tugboats. 

*Anders Rasmussen is Sales Director at Daniamant A/S who have offices in Denmark and the UK, manufacturing a broad range of products within marine lighting devices alongside Salinometers, boiler systems, sonars, alarm systems and inclinometers. They also distribute various products and are looking towards organic growth and new opportunities in all sectors. anders.rasmussen@daniamant.com
www.daniamant.com

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**Summer is well and truly moving on and before we know it the CIRM team will be over in Hamburg for SMM.  If you would like to meet up please do contact me: fb@cirm.org.  

Members, please note:– The CIRM Annual Conference will take place 17 – 20 October 2022 at the Hilton Hotel, St Julian’s Malta   Display areas for CIRM members are bookable via Colleen Wyatt Executive Assistant CIRM 

cw@cirm.org

https://www.cirm.org/meetings/annual-conference-2022.html

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