Towage and Sureline
Why Us
We are all aware that working in the maritime industry requires us all to manage ‘safety’ as a prime responsibility and is a key area of interest whether we are towage operators, pilots, port & harbour authorities, insurers, accident investigators or manufacturers of vessels or marine equipment.
In January 2024, the SOLAS regulations (II-1/3-8) came into force, offering new guidance in monitoring and reporting on marine rope integrity, and recently covered by DNV, read more about it here.
So it is timely that ‘sureline’ a pen sized rope tension sensor offers a step change in safety to allow for crew to have greater confidence in the operation of winches and integrity of towing or mooring ropes.
Our ambition is simple: that ‘sureline’ becomes a safety feature for all operators in the marine industry that utilise marine ropes.
Vessel Towage
During vessel towage, there are many factors to consider, and these can be found and detailed within OCIMF documents and other tug operator support documents.
With respect to towing ropes, factors such as internal and external friction and the build-up of heat are key considerations. Shock loading is also a factor where a sudden high load is transferred from a low or static situation, leading to a sudden peak load, often higher than recommended rope load limits. Rope failure can be the end result impacting the towing operation, the crew and the vessels involved.
Towing assembly management plans should be in place and supported by the rope manufacturer. For the first time, towing operations can be further supported by the use of sureline and sureline data systems, helping to de-risk towage operations.
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Rope Tension Safety
Sureline can be used as a single-point rope sensor or deployed with multiple sensors in different ropes to offer real-time information during towing operations. This gives vital information to the tug master, helping avoid over-tensioning of the tow line during vessel towage.
Sureline takes seconds to install into a towing rope and can monitor and report up to 10 data points per second, and when calibrated, the sensor is accurate to +/- 5%. Data is shown in real time to a dashboard on a tablet or mobile phone and can show real-time rope tension, rope angle, slew angle, peak loads, etc., with the operator setting warning thresholds.
With new SOLAS marine rope regulations now active, sureline provides new insights on towing rope dynamics, offering enhanced and safer towage operations.
Click to access/download the towage datasheet via email request:
Read More Towage Datasheet