Two rotary vane steering gear type HVT 455-65 were supplied to the Papenburg Shipyard Meyer Werft in June 2003 after final successful testing in the HATLAPA factory.
The largest steering gear of their series with a rudder angle of 2x65° are intended for the Ro/Ro-Cruise Ferry "Pont-Aven", which has been put into operation at the end of March this year for voyaging Great Britain and South West Europe.
The steering gears are two 2-rotary vane steering gears which allow a large rudder angle, thus guaranteeing optimum manoeuvrability of the ship. The advantage of the rotary vane steering gear is that it can be used for all rudder types because the torque characteristic curve runs almost linear independent from the rudder angle. Due to the close cooperation with Becker Marine Systems (BMS) an efficient and optimum coordination has been effected between steering gear and the full spade rudder supplied by HATLAPA's partner BMS.
As the engine room is very confined on the vessel "Pont-Aven", the choice soon fell on the rotary vane steering gear in view of its compact design. Furthermore, the positioning of the corresponding pump sets is flexible as they need no direct connection on the steering gear, but are only connected by hydraulic hoses.
The flow current is adjustable steplessly by the use of pumps with variable displacement, which guarantees an exact positioning of the rudder and thereby exact control of the rudder angle. Furthermore the servo-pumps, built as a complete unit consisting of pump and wayvalve prevent pressure knocks in the piping system, which could have a negative effect on the rudder control.
The integrated rudder carrier allows simple and quick installation in the engine room of the Ro/Ro-Cruise Ferry. This is also supported by a simply built foundation which is fixed with only a few fastening bolts, as it only needs to absorb the arising radial forces.