AC drives manufacturer Vacon, Finland, will deliver two 4.6MW diesel-electric main propulsion drives to a Belgian high-tech fall pipe rockdumping vessel.
The delivery will be conducted through Vacon's global system integrator partner, Imtech Marine & Offshore.
The special vessel, called 'Flintstone', will be built for Tideway, an offshore specialist within the Belgian DEME (Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering) Group. With a loading capacity of 19,000 tonnes, the vessel can accurately cover oil and gas pipelines, installed thousands of metres under water, with a layer of rocks to embed them in the ocean floor.
Imtech Marine & Offshore will also deliver a dynamic positioning and dynamic tracking system on the 'Flintstone'.
The Vacon AC drives needed for the diesel-electric propulsion will be two sets of Vacon's 4.6MW liquid-cooled AC drives and two 900kW liquid-cooled AC drives. They will be controlled by Vacon DriveSynch, an innovative concept for running high-power AC drives in parallel.
The Vacon DriveSynch provides a high degree of redundancy by allowing the control of one motor by means of two to four AC drives of 100 to 2,500 kW each. The Vacon DriveSynch is suited for the control of single and multi-winding AC motors.
The total installed power of the fall pipe rockdumping vessel is 13,000 kW. Diesel-electric propulsion is an eco-friendly system, allowing significant reductions in fuel consumption and environmentally harmful emissions. Additionally, ships which are equipped with this kind of technology are more manoeuvrable and produce less vibration on board resulting in less noise pollution.
The rockdumping vessel will be constructed at the Sembawang shipyard in Singapore and will be operational in 2011.
For further information contact:
