Transas Marine has developed a new shipyard crane simulator fllowing a request from Balenciaga Shipyard in Spain.
According to Transas, the simulator will enable safe and cost-effective training of crane operators working with berth gantry crane of 160t. The shipyard purchased this crane in 2006 in order to build large ship construction blocks which are assembled in the workshops and then transferred outside by hydraulic buggies.
The related crane operation is a complex procedure that is affected by a significant risk of damaging expensive equipment and ship construction parts. In order to reduce these risks it was decided to plan and pre-play the units operation procedures with the use of computer simulation.
The simulator helps to investigate the physical capability of a crane and ropes to lift a particular hull construction segment. Using Transas simulation, balance correctness is calculated when connecting ropes to cargo. Trainees can practice collision avoidance of cargo with surrounding objects when cargo is being lifted and transported by a crane. Construction segments that are designed for real vessels are imported into simulation scenarios to enable the most realistic training in handling this type of cargo.
Balenciaga Shipyard will be able to load and display user-created components. The major objective is to obtain knowledge of components dynamics and determine the best mounting point. The crane simulator was integrated to the existing Transas navigational and manoeuvring simulator NTPro which has been used for new building projects. Combination of two simulators provides a cost-effective solution as they both use the same visualisation. In addition, this configuration provides for efficient development of new vessel projects.
Balenciaga Shipyard builds steel hull ships, up to 90m LOA, which now include tug boats, offshore support vessels, fishing vessels, cargo vessels, ferries and product carriers.
