In the week of their 85th anniversary HATLAPA Uetersener Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG shipped a deep-sea towing winch on Saturday, 13.11.04 from the small port of Uetersen. A towing winch of this size has been produced for the first time in the history of the company.
The winch will be installed on a deep-sea tug which is presently being built by the Mützelfeldt Shipyard in Cuxhaven. The order was placed by Ferrostaal, Essen and Harms Bergung, Hamburg who will be operated this tug and which will be used for all kinds of deep-sea transport, offshore work, salvage and rescue in sea accidents.
The towing winch, weighing 56 tons, has been built in "waterfall" design, i.e. 2 rope drums arranged one above the other accommodate the towing ropes. The dynamic pull of the winch is 100 tons and the static holding load 250 tons.
The upper rope drum is belayed with a towing wire (64 mm diameter) of 1,2 km length. The lower drum is of split type, having a towing wire of the same diameter, but 800 m long, and a rope guy 300 m long.
The towing winch is driven by the "stepless drive" which has been developed and patented by HATLAPA. Frequency inverter controlled electric motors and corresponding controls allow stepless operation of the winch, otherwise known from hydraulic drives. Thus protective operation at very high rope speeds of up to 45 m/min is guaranteed.
In cooperation with Ferrostaal and Harms Bergung it was possible to arrange the transport from the port of Uetersen to the Mützelfeldt Shipyard in Cuxhaven.