Structural Performance of Anchor Towing Winches

The exploitation of oil fields in increasingly harsher environments requires ever stronger Offshore Supply Vessels for the anchorage of the drilling platforms. The same applies for the winches onboard the assistance vessels.

Some incidents in the recent past demonstrated that the performance of winches and foundation structures did not fit the strength requirements. Damages occurred from load induced misalignment of the gear wheels. The wheels obviously deflect in translatory and rotatory movements and thus their teeth grip pattern becomes insufficient. As a result heavy wear in short periods occurred frequently.

The project investigated the teeth grip pattern of typical winches as a function of the structural stiffness and in combination with the supporting deck structures.