So far in 2020 we have signed orders for more than 30 new retractable azimuth thrusters in the upper size in our product range. This gives us improved visibility into the next years and a great opportunity to invest more in product development.
Published July 2, 2020
The Brunvoll group has succeeded in obtaining several of new orders in a market strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. These orders and the solidity of Brunvoll give strength to continued investment in product and process development.
Recent orders include deliveries of a range of products. Among them, the company’s largest retractable azimuth thrusters which are offered with a power of up to 3600 kW for dynamic positioning. The deliveries also include direct coupled and geared controllable pitch propellers for main propulsion, including large main propellers up to 8.3 meters in diameter that can be set in a fully feathering position.
Brunvoll’s largest retractable thruster with a propeller diameter of 2. 9 m, and a weight of about 80 tons, has been designed for shuttle tankers, specialized construction vessels and cable layers.
The development of new and larger thrusters has been a huge development process in recent years – but has enabled deliveries of propulsion and maneuvering systems to larger vessels with high demands in reliability, manoeuvering capability, and low energy consumption.
Brunvoll is introducing a new range of dedicated main propulsion thruster units, both pulling azimuth units with open propellers and ducted azimuth units. The company have already delivered several units of the new highly efficient pulling azimuth thruster of the type PU74 with a power range of up to 1350 kW, and the new ducted azimuth thruster AUP115 with a power range up to 3500 kW.
All propellers and thrusters from Brunvoll may be delivered with a design preventing leakage into the sea of oil-based lubricants from dynamic seals.
Brunvoll have developed an own solution for thrusters, including units with controllable pitch propellers, allowing environmentally acceptable lubricants to be used for all outer barriers against the sea.
This is one of many measures Brunvoll take to make the maritime and ocean-related industries greener for the future.
We strive to be a preferred supplier of complete systems for propulsion and maneuvering, including advanced systems for autonomous operation, says Andresen.
One of the new services is Brunvoll Condition Monitoring System (CMS). It gives ship owners enhanced operational control, early detection of any abnormal incidents and reduced lifecycle costs. The new orders signed first half of 2020 also include deliveries of the Brunvoll CMS.
The Brunvoll CMS offers owners a synthesis of logged operational data based on Brunvoll’s experience as a designer, manufacturer, and service provider. Brunvoll has set up an operations center for ships and offers additional onboard dedicated dashboards and integration with the ship maintenance system.
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Brunvoll is strengthening the investments in the further development of automation systems and have increased both capability and capacity by hiring new experienced employees.
To be a leading system supplier, we are strengthening our staff in the R&D department. We also maintain our long-term strategy to produce all major components in our systems in our own facilities here in Norway, and this capability is very important for our development work and implementation of new technologies. In 2020 so far, we have several new system developers, and a new Vice President for Autonomy, says Andresen.
The new Vice President Autonomy, Frode Bloch, joined our team in October 2020. He has gained extensive experience since he graduated from NTNU in 1994; hydrodynamics in propeller and thruster design, software development, positioning systems, as well as automated sailing and docking to mention some.
The development within autonomous operation of ships is to a large extent based on advanced vessel simulators for verification of control algorithms and system robustness. This has been proved to be very effective for reducing the time needed to tune the systems during sea trials.
The emphasis for the further development will be on various systems for more autonomous operation of ships including certified DP-systems, voyage systems, as well as automated docking systems.
Brunvoll is also proud to present SEAOPS (Safe Energy-efficient Autonomous Operations of Ships). This is an on-going research project in collaboration with the leading research communities in Norway as well as a shipowner. The SEAOPS pilot installation will be extensively tested both by advanced simulation tools and by extensive on-board measurements to ensure that customer expectations ae met.
