Press Release: Offering consistently faster, more efficient, and safer mooring, Synergy Ocean, Viking Cruises, Berge Bulk and Finnlines have all signed up to be first to utilize Wilhelmsen’s one of a kind digital mooring system aboard their vessels.
Developed and refined over the past three years, Wilhelmsen’s Smart Ropes system is poised to dramatically improve mooring safety onboard vessels. Based on the experience from rigorous testing aboard a working ro-ro vessel, all parts of the system have been refined and improved in readiness for the next phase of installations.
Comprising a patent-pending measuring unit, embedded within the mooring rope, the ‘smart’ unit transmits key tension, time, temperature data in addition to a combination of parameters that make up the proprietary system design. Using the latest wireless communication, the data is sent to a command module located on the bridge, designed to work even under the most challenging mooring conditions typically experienced in poor weather. This data is processed and transferred to a live feed, running on a tablet, or computer on the ship’s bridge, backed-up in the cloud.
Helping to ensure mooring ropes have the right tension, in the right place, at the right time, all the time, Wilhelmsen’s unique system, has been specifically developed in order to relegate over tensioned lines, premature wear of ropes and in the worst-case scenario unexpected rope failures, to history.
Magnus Dickens, Venture Lead in Wilhelmsen Marine Products’ recently established Open Innovation function, says, “This isn’t a gimmick or another piece of badly thought out maritime bloatware. We have spent years developing a completely new technology, which brings accuracy, transparency and consistency to a task which is currently haphazard and fraught with risk. We are thrilled to partner up with these four, forward-learning companies who share our vision of safer, more effective, data-driven mooring operations”.
Capt. Shivram Volety, Director of Synergy Ocean Maritime Inc. says, “Seeing the tension of a vessel’s mooring ropes for the first time, in real time, via an app is a novelty. But it absolutely shouldn’t be, it should be necessity. Wilhelmsen are determined to push the boundaries and we Synergy Ocean Maritime Inc., are proud to be one of the first companies to be able to benefit from their Smart Ropes system”.
