Kawasaki Heavy Industries has maintained a cutting-edge marine propulsion wing alongside its core shipbuilding unit for over a hundred years since the company's first marine steam turbine was introduced in 1907.
Now supplying the commercial marine market with a complete range of thrusters, Kawasaki enjoyed a dream run of supplying several advanced work boat new buildings to the Asian offshore industry last year.
A succession of side thrusters
2013 was a successful year for Kawasaki's thruster sales division. The company installed eight-tonne bow and stern thrusters on Guangxin's 60.5-metre OSV 'Crest Marlin' for Singapore and contributed to Jaya Holdings' future-classic multi-purpose OSV 'Jaya Pride'.
But it is in the side thruster category that Kawasaki has truly shone bright. In 2013, the company installed a side thruster unit on Fujian Southeast's Italy-bound platform supply vessel (PSV) 'VOS Purpose'. The vessel is set to operate in the Mediterranean by Scottish marine services provider Vroon Offshore Services. The 75-metre x 17.25-metre x 6.5-metre vessel's manoeuvrability and station keeping are made possible by the Kawasaki thruster, which enhances the vessel's flexibility and versatility when performing crew transfer and cargo supply operations.
Not one to rest on its laurels, Kawasaki also provided three side thrusters (in a package also featuring a pair of Kawasaki controllable-pitch propellers) to China State Shipbuilding Corporation subsidiary Guijiang Shipbuilding's 51.8-metre anchor handling tug 'SMIT Seraya'. Built for salvage and towage firm SMIT Singapore, a subsidiary of Boskalis, the all-steel 'SMIT Seraya' features impressive manoeuvrability and a phenomenal bollard pull of 95 tonnes. The vessel is well-equipped for anchor handling duties, salvage operations, emergency response, pipelay projects, maritime construction and barge towage.
Rounding out the year, Kawasaki provided a pair of KT-72B1 thruster units to Xin Yue Feng's most recent delivery in the 'Mutawa' series of anchor handlers for United Arab Emirates-based ship owner Al. Mutawa Marine Works. Rated for 7.1 tonnes and installed both aft and forward, the thrusters aid the positioning and station-keeping for the 58.6-metre vessel, known as the 'Mutawa 303'.
Looking on the bright side
With input powers ranging up to 4,000kW, the product line caters to all vessel types and requirements. Each thruster unit can also be used with virtually any type of motor, from electric motors to marine diesel engines and hydraulic systems.
Compact in design and with low vibration and noise, thruster or propeller blades can be removed inside the tunnel for easy inspection. The side thruster's unobtrusive overall length also means it can be installed in the vessel location that generates the greatest turning movement.
Controlled by either a small user-friendly touch panel or a remote control unit specially designed for offshore support vessels, Kawasaki thrusters seamlessly integrate with dynamic positioning systems. Optional low noise double wall tunnels and fixed-pitch propeller (FPP) variants are also available.
"In 2013 we improved the thruster remote controller for OSVs," Kawasaki told Baird Maritime.
"Featuring an easy-to-operate 5.7-inch touch panel, up to four units can be operated within the one panel unit. We also expanded the number of alarm and indication interfaces, included an alarm history screen and provided a DPS and joystick interface as standard.
"Synchronous pitch control of several thrusters is now permitted by a single lever and we also reduced the dimensions of the control unit by over 50 per cent for remote controllers maintaining four thruster units per vessel. We believe a smaller remote control unit allows for greater flexibility."
Each Kawasaki side thruster is thus a product of refined engineering and innovation, distilled over many generations of product cycles.
For further information contact:
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Japan.
Web: www.khi.co.jp