Successful testing for the first Transverse Mooring winch to be used at the construction of world’s longest immersed tunnel
Successful testing for the first Transverse Mooring winch to be used at the construction of world’s longest immersed tunnel
Placed on the deck of the base float, the transverse mooring winch plays a key role in accurately positioning the tunnel elements in a transverse direction during the immersion process.
With four electric motors and four angled planetary gearboxes, this winch is equipped with various encoders, sensors, and the three windings on the first layer for safety.
As far as the technical performances, the transverse mooring winch generates a nominal pull of 1500 kN on the 5th layer at 6m/min, a stall pull of 1900 kN on the 5th layer, and a brake holding force of 2448 kN. The drum can accommodate up to 500 m Ø60 mm wire rope in 6 layers. For engaging – disengaging the drum, the winch is equipped with a free spooling clutch mounted on each of the 4 pinions. Every coupling device has sensors mounted to detect if the jaw clutch is engaged or disengaged.
The challenge in designing this winch was to combine all the requested elements into one piece of equipment while fulfilling the limits in size and weight, as explained by the design engineer, Dan Olariu.
“The sheer magnitude of the workload involved in designing and producing winches for the longest immersed tunnel in the world makes it a challenge for us as a company and cannot be achieved without an intense team effort”, adds Adrian Fulger, Project Manager.
The transverse mooring winches, along with other eight different types of winches, 66 in total, will have the enormous responsibility to put together the parts of the longest immersed tunnel in the world.