Background

STARTER teams have designed and implemented a system with a pneumatic hoist for operating a gate for a dry-dock in the port of Lorient for a leader for value-added naval defence systems and naval prime contractor, systems integrator and shipbuilder.

Objectives

Design and implementation of a system for operating a lifting door for a dry-dock including a 35,000 daN winch, and all mobile and fixed pulleys overall kinematics, as well as a dedicated man-machine interface.

Challenges

All the equipment is exposed to a marine environment, some of which is subject to full immersion. A high level of reliability and availability is required, even in case of failure of the main power supply.

STARTER solution : pneumatic hoist

After a safety assessment, including a complete FMEA analysis, the STARTER teams have designed a full system including the development of an emergency mode, redundantly connected with the electric motor, degraded in terms of speed, by adding a pneumatic motor with a clutch that is selectively engageable and disengageable under load.
This winch develops a lifting capacity of 35,000 daN and is equipped with a monitoring system tracking load, speed and unwound wire rope length.

Result

This equipment is in service since the first quarter 2011.

Technical specifications of the pneumatic hoist

• Application : Lifting.
• Effort : 35,000 daN in first layer.
• Speed : 15 m/mn.
• Static resistance : 50,000 daN.