Norwegians interested in electric trawl winches from Scantrol

Scantrol has long traditions in delivering control systems for hydraulic trawl winches, and a large number of SymmetryControl systems are in operation on fishing vessels all over the world. Because fishing vessel owners are showing increasing interest in electric winches, Scantrol has developed the SymmetryControl technology to also control electric trawl winches. This has been a great success -- SymmetryControl and electric winches have proved to be a good match.

It started in Iceland

The first Symmetry Control system for electric trawl winches was delivered in cooperation with Naust Marine to the Icelandic trawler Otto N. Tholaksson back in January 2000. The skipper on board, Johannes Ellert Eiriksson, who was the first skipper who could run autotrawl on electric winches without using load cells on deck is very satisfied: "It works like a charm", he says, and adds that there has been a lot less damages to his fishing gear. These savings paid back the investment in only the first half year of operating.

Eriksson especially points out how well the system is working when it automatically is adjusting the wire length when trawling from deeper waters to more shallow waters or vise versa. The system controls the winches very smoothly, and automatically pays out wire when he has a fastener.

Scantrol put the trawl in focus

Scantrol measures the direction of the water flowing into to the trawl, and adjusts the wire tension automatically so that the water always flows directly into the trawl. This makes trawl symmetric and well spread under all conditions. The winches are all the time operated in constant tension mode to compensate for wave motions and to pay out wire during a fastener.

Other autotrawl systems assumes that the trawl is square if the wire tensions are equal, but this is not always the truth. When trawling in difficult conditions like strong tides and slopes, the wire length and tension can indicate that the trawl is more square than it actually is. By using SymmetryControl you will always be updated on the trawl condition and its behaviour, independent of what the wire length or tension are telling you. This system can be used with all modern hydraulic or electric trawl winches. The functionality and operation will be exactly the same.

No loadcells

It is common to use loadcells mounted in separate measuring blocks on deck to measure wire tension when using electric winches. Most skippers are sceptical to this because it is difficult to find space for these blocks and also because they expect operational problems over time

The patented Scantrol SymmetryControl eliminates measurement blocks on deck, and this is probably one of the reason why an increasing number of vessel owners are considering installing electric trawl winches. Symmetry Control is delivered by Scantrol and its partners only, and without this system you will have to use less reliable systems with load cells.

Delivery to the worlds first trawler equipped with modern AC driven winches With great success this system has been installed on the vessel Atlantic Enterprise, (picture above) which is the first trawler in the world with new electric AC trawl winches from Aker Brattvag Winch in Norway.