202results about "Tugs" patented technology

Marine LNG carrier and method of operating the marine LNG carrier. The LNG carrier carries LNG in at least one tank. Gas composed of evaporated LNG within the at least one tank is removed. The gas is fed to at least one gas consuming prime mover of the LNG carrier. Power is provided with the at least one gas consuming prime mover. This Abstract is not intended to define the invention disclosed in the specification, nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.

A marine vessel maneuvering supporting apparatus performs a stationary marine vessel maneuvering support operation, the marine vessel including a pair of propulsion systems which respectively generate propulsive forces on a rear port side and a rear starboard side of a hull, and a pair of steering mechanisms which respectively change steering angles. The apparatus includes a position detecting section which detects a position of the marine vessel, a marine vessel maneuvering support starting command section, a marine vessel maneuvering support starting position storing section, a steering controlling section which controls the steering angles of the respective steering mechanisms such that the marine vessel has a turning angular speed of zero in response to the marine vessel maneuvering support starting command, a target propulsive force calculating section which calculates target propulsive forces to be generated from the respective propulsion systems, such that at least one of x- and y-coordinates of the current marine vessel position is maintained substantially equal to a corresponding one of x- and y-coordinates of the marine vessel maneuvering support starting position, and a propulsive force controlling section which controls the propulsion systems to attain the target propulsive forces.

The wave powered (WP) propulsion systems developed in great amount for boats are not in use because of small effectiveness caused by rocking process reducing propellor stroke relatively water. Submarines and special quasi-dipped watercrafts deprived of this disadvantage. Their bodies keeps stable the propellors mounted on conning towers or special props owing to the body's great mass. This factor multiplies the WP propellor effectiveness meeting Navy and Merchant fleet requirements. The invention includes designs of: spare WP propulsion plant embedded into submarine diving rudders or folded into pockets of the submarine sail, quasi-dipped watercraft carrying multiple foil WP propulsion system, quasi-dipped tug towing submerged tank, self optimized foil propellor. Experiences with submarine models equipped by the WP propellers have shown excellent results. Expected velocities for submarine 4-7 knots, for the quasi-dipped watercraft 5-15 knots. The folded spare WP propulsion plant does not interrupt submarine functioning.

A method for obtaining warranty registration of products, facilitating return of lost products, and expediting warranty service on defective products comprising providing a unique identifier on or within each product; providing a lost and found system comprising the steps of marking each product with return instructions and a reward offer to any person who finds said product after it has been lost; and offering to return each product to a registered owner in the event said product is lost and returned by said person who finds it if said owner provides data comprising owner identification and date said product was purchased at retail; providing said data to a manufacturer or other warrantor in order to register said warranty.

A method for obtaining warranty registration of products, facilitating return of lost products, and expediting warranty service on defective products comprising providing a unique identifier on or within each product; providing a lost and found system comprising the steps of marking each product with return instructions and a reward offer to any person who finds said product after it has been lost; and offering to return each product to a registered owner in the event said product is lost and returned by said person who finds it if said owner provides data comprising owner identification and date said product was purchased at retail; providing said data to a manufacturer or other warrantor in order to register said warranty.

Articulated tug and barge arrangements and methods for transportation, storage and regasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG) aboard barge units and for ballasting the barge units are provided. A barge unit includes a type C tank for the containment of LNG under pressure and a regasification unit fluidly coupled to the type C tank for regasification of LNG aboard the barge unit for offloading natural gas. The barge unit is adapted for loading LNG directly from a liquefaction plant, for transporting LNG by operatively coupling to a tug unit, as well as for storing LNG at a destined off board facility, and for fueling a floating power production facility. The arrangements and methods provide a transport terminal ring. The arrangements and methods provide for the circulation of seawater through the regasification unit and into ballast tanks for ballasting of the barge unit while offloading natural gas.

An azimuthing drive system is provided for marine vessels. The azimuthing drive system includes a propulsion pod that houses a propulsor, which is configured to rotate about a first axis and to be driven by a first shaft generally orthogonal to the first axis. The propulsion pod is configured to swivel about the first shaft. The drive system also includes a gearbox connected to drive the first shaft, a diesel engine connected to drive the gearbox via a second shaft, and an electric motor connected to drive the first shaft via the gearbox or directly, whereby propulsion loads are shared between the diesel engine and the electric motor.

A method for controlling operation of a propulsion system of a waterborne vessel, comprising adjusting recovery of energy generated from the propulsion system to maintain position of the waterborne vessel in response to at least an indication of vessel position.

A ship hull structure includes a main hull and a movable rearbody having an engine and a propeller. The movable rearbody is located at a lower side of a stern of the main hull, connected with an aft of the main hull to form an integral unit by a hinge linking device allowing the rearbody to pivot up and down. By a block, a crane or a winch and through a chain or a hanging wire, a pivoting angle of the movable rearbody with respect to the main hull can be adjusted and controlled. A bottom of the hull can be provided with at least one, usually plural, air cushion recess, which is filled with pressurized air to reduce a viscous force between a bottom of the ship and water. When a ship of this kind of structure is sailing, the rearbody can be lifted up by the block or the winch, allowing part of the propeller to be separated from a water surface to reduce resistance in the water that the engine can achieve a required rotational speed (RPM) in a short time. Next, the rearbody is laid down slowly, allowing the propeller to be put into the water, thereby increasing propulsion and quickly achieving a cruising speed. When the ship is sailing and encounters with wind wave, the stern will ascend by longitudinal pitching; at this time, the rearbody can descend by its own weight, with a hinge axis as a center, preventing the propeller to leave the water surface to rotate idly. On the other hand, when a bow ascends (that is, the stern descends), the rearbody will maintain a normal draught height by buoyancy of the water and the force between the water and running propeller Therefore, for the entire ship, a wetted surface area of the propeller can be adjusted automatically to keep at a best sailing condition, which can further save fuel consumption significantly. In another embodiment that the bottom of the ship is formed with the air cushion recesses, a friction force of the water can be reduced to increase a ship speed by the air cushion effect formed at the bottom of the ship.

Disclosed is a watercraft for use in combination with a PWC or suitable shallow draft propulsion system. The watercraft is designed to operate in emergency conditions where flood waters leave an uncharted bottom that may be as little as twelve inches deep or conceal a submerged object. The watercraft includes a ramp allowing for the ease of loading including wheelchair bound and bed-bound patients as well as supplies such as water, food, medical supplies, generators, and water filtration systems. The watercraft is based upon two pontoons having a storable floor and support structure, the support structure overlays a portion of each pontoon.

A small-sized tugboat belongs to the technical field of tugboats and comprises a tugboat body, a mooring rope, a stern roller, a shark jaw, a large tow, a superstructure, an anchor windlass, anchors, bow propellers, a left propeller, a middle propeller, a right propeller and cushion tires. The tugboat body is formed by welding steel plates, the stern of the tugboat body is provided with the cylindrical stern roller, the superstructure is arranged on the upper surface of the main deck of the tugboat body, the anchor windlass is arranged in front of the superstructure, the anchors are arranged on the anchor windlass in a suspension mode through anchor chains, the large tow is arranged behind the superstructure, the shark jaw is arranged between the large tow and the stern roller, the midpoints of the large tow, the stern roller and the shark jaw form a straight line, the bottom of a bow is provided with the bow propeller, the bottom of the stern is provided with the left propeller, the middle propeller and the right propeller from left to right, and the periphery of the tugboat is provided with the cushion tires. Therefore, the novel small-sized tugboat solves the problems that the transportation costs are over-high, the turning is inconvenient and inflexible, long-term friction between the stern of the tugboat body and a tow line causes potential safety risks to transportation, the tow line is extremely prone to swinging from side to side during a towing process of the tugboat so that the direction of the tugboat is not easy to control and the like in many tugboats.

A small watercraft with watertight hull and an area at the rear in close proximity to the waterline that provides a means to mount payloads. Engines powering propellers are installed forward of the payload area and are covered by a water-tight deck with openings for intake air. Ancillary systems to support the engines and electrical components are provided in a conventional manner. A feature of the present invention is that the hull has been modified to permit a tow cable to pass through the hull from a towing winch to a towed body. The present invention moves the reaction from the tow force forward of the craft transom and low in the hull which greatly improves the stability of the small vessel particularly when it is operating in rough water. The present invention is applicable to any size of the hull and any materials that the hull is fabricated from.

Articulated tug and barge arrangements and methods for transportation, storage, and regasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG) aboard barge units and ballasting the barge units, and LNG bunker barge systems and methods for LNG bunkering, are provided.

Power transmission systems including clutch arrangements and systems are adapted to be used in marine and other environments. Such power transmission systems may include clutch arrangements that provide more effective power transmission capabilities as well as greater durability and longer life. Slipping clutch arrangements may effectively vary the output speed of a clutch arrangement from the speed of the engine or other driver as desired for the particular application. Various clutch arrangements also provide for greater flexibility and drive options, lighter weight, and diverse types of capabilities.

The invention discloses an energy-saving ship-handling method based on an all-gyration tugboat, which is an improvement on the prior ship-handling method. The energy-saving ship-handling method is characterized by comprising the steps of detecting a revolution meter of a host machine of the energy-saving ship-handling method according to the condition of the tugboat, adjusting the rotational frequency of the tugboat at dead slow speed, low speed, middle speed and high speed according to the revolution meter and keeping the output power of the host machine to basically stable at different speeds so as to realize that single-host-machine operation mode replaces double-host-machine operation mode to complete steps of navigation, towing navigation and pushing or towing operation for port working. The practice shows that the ship-handling method has remarkable effect on energy saving and can be popularized and applied to various all-gyration tugboats in any navigation area.

Disclosed is a tug-barge offshore cargo transport device and method, comprised of two separate elements which are removably attached: a barge and a tug boat. The barge includes a bow shaped to cut through and deflect waves, a rectangular cargo deck protected by a bulwark, compartments below the cargo deck, means for maneuvering the barge, and means at the stern of the barge for removably attaching the barge to a tug boat. The tug boat includes means at the bow to removably attach to the barge, and means to control the means for maneuvering the barge from the tug boat.

Provided herein is a taxiing system for for steering an amphibious aircraft on a body of water. The system has a pair of thrusters that are deployed after landing on the water to taxi the amphibious the aircraft prior to docking and to unloading and are retractable to taxi the amphibious aircraft prior to take-off. Also provided is a docking device to dock the amphibious aircraft to a mooring buoy. In addition provided herein is a system for maneuvering an amphibious aircraft during taxiing and docking on water that integrates the taxiing system with the docking device.

The dock vessel has the tow compartment for placement of tug-boats, and technological compartment. The technological compartment is made as a hangar at the bottom of which a central channel is located, along its upper boundaries, the rack-ledges with symmetrical location to the right and left, toward the hull, are placed on which the technological equipment for the water-oil emulsion treatment is placed. Between the dock-vessel hull walls and side walls of the central channel, the containers for collection of the emulsified oil are placed. The central channel of the technological compartment is equipped with, at least, two bulkheads in which, the hermetically pluggable openings located at different levels are made. The floating boom is made as the sectional net sleeve filled with elastic porous adsorbent and provided with positive buoyancy in the top edge of doubled net forming the net sleeve and negative buoyancy at its lower edge.

An elongate article (100) such as a prefabricated pipeline of several kilometers length is towed through water. The article is provided along its length with buoyancy adjusting material (102) fitted closely to the article. The buoyancy adjusting material is sufficient to give the article overall a positive buoyancy so that it will not sink to the seabed, and is distributed unevenly along the length of the article so as to create regions of negative buoyancy. This causes the article to adopt a wave profile with peaks (+) and troughs (−) along its length. The article is connected at its extremities to lead and trail tugs (104, 106) for controlling movement of the article through the water. Intermediate peaks are optionally coupled to intermediate tugs (108) or buoys (702) via self-adjusting ballast chains (110). The wave profile allows the towed structure to extend without undue tension on the article itself. The article can be laid to the seabed progressively removing buoyancy elements (102) using an ROV (302).

A method for intercepting and yawing an errant sailing vessel is disclosed, wherein the vessel might have been hijacked or malfunctioned and in danger of colliding with an object. The method comprises dispatching a pair of watercraft to approach said sailing vessel, providing a tow rope to be secured at one end to first watercraft and the other end to second watercraft. The tow rope is brought to extend between the first and second watercrafts over the hull of said sailing vessel. The first watercraft is then secured to one side of said sailing vessel's hull, while second watercraft pulls the tow rope away from the direction of sailing on the other side of said vessel's hull. In an alternative embodiment, the tow rope end held by the first watercraft may be secured directly to the vessel's hull, thus freeing the first watercraft to evacuate crew from the vessel to a safer distance.

The present invention relates to a pontoon boats that may couple and be driven by a PWC. The invention further relates to pontoon boats having a portion that moves into an open water recess at the rear of the pontoon boat. The invention further relates to an engagement assembly for securing a PWC to such a pontoon boat.

The invention relates to a system and method of sail propulsion for sailing vessels and tugboats, consisting of one or more rows of sails secured at their upper vertices or corners by means of the ends of masts, and cables or ropes located between the upper ends of the masts, or the ends of the radial arms of said masts, with masts provided in the bow and others in the stern. The sails are secured at their lower vertices or corners to rings fixed to the deck, to ropes or cables, the ends of which are attached to the deck, to small posts, to the lower region of the main masts, to the ends of radial arms fixed in the lower region of the masts, or to pulleys on which the cables are wound using motors. The rows of sails, aligned from bow to stern, include a mast at the end sails. Cables or ropes form the upper ends of the intermediate sails.

A method for operating a towing winch and an electric drive for a towing winch, the towing winch including a rotatable winch drum for spooling a spoolable medium, and an electric motor operably coupled to the winch drum to rotate the winch drum, wherein the electric drive is configured to be operably coupled to the electric motor, and configured to control, during a towing of at least one object connected to the spoolable medium, a tension of the spoolable medium between the winch drum and the at least one object to be towed to be equal to or lower than a tension limit value; and monitor, during the towing, a roll angle of the tug, and in response to the monitored roll angle of the tug being outside of a predetermined range, lower the tension limit value providing roll compensation.

A tug boat having at least one towing winch and a movable towing point apparatus, wherein said towing point apparatus can guide a towing cable from a towing winch to a vessel to be assisted, comprising a rotating element that at least partly guides the towing cable such that the pulling force on said cable is transmitted to the tug boat at least partly through said rotating element when in use, said rotating element pivoting freely around a first axis and said first axis fixed to an arm which in turn can pivot about a second axis, said second axis being spaced apart from said first axis and the second axis being non-parallel.

The invention, which belongs to the technical field of deep sea dragging detection, discloses a deep sea high-speed dragging safety control system. A ship body is connected and communicated with a data energy conversion force-bearing cabin through a towing cable, the data energy conversion force-bearing cabin is in force-bearing connection with a ballast device through an underwater acoustic release device, and a pressure sensor and an altimeter in the ballast device are connected with the data energy conversion force-bearing cabin through a feed cable; the data energy conversion force-bearingcabin is connected and communicated with a detection towed body through an umbilical cable, and a cable releasing device is arranged at the connecting part of the umbilical cable and the detection towed body; the ballast device prevents the detection towed body from touching the bottom or colliding with an obstacle in a ballast release mode; and if the ballast release mode fails, the underwater acoustic release device receives a release instruction to complete disconnection of physical connection between the ballast device and the data energy conversion force-bearing cabin. According to the invention, the probability of a grounding accident of the ballast towed body can be effectively reduced, the harm of the grounding accident of the ballast towed body is reduced, and the floating reliability of the detection towed body is improved.

The disclosure relates to a versatile transport-cargo vessel system configured for travel on water. The vessel system either includes a single self propelled vessel or a tugboat section and a barge section configured to interlock. The self propelled vessel or the barge section is configured to carry liquefied natural gas and at least one additional cargo. The additional cargo may include a cargo for resupplying another vessel. The cargo may include at least one of marine gas oil, lubricant, distillates, bio-fuels and water. The disclosure also relates to a method of resupplying a second vessel using the versatile transport-delivery vessel.