ACE Winches has declared the development of a new Active Heave Compensation Winch System, which it will be promoting at the forthcoming OSEA 2010 Exhibition in Singapore next week.

Chief Executive Officer Alfie Cheyne will be attending OSEA. It is the first time ACE Winches has attended the Singapore event and illustrates the company’s commitment to its award winning exporting strategy of delivering world-class products to international markets.

The Oil & Gas technology trade exhibition - OSEA, which takes place from November 30-December 3 this year, was established three decades ago to be the leading industry event for Asia. This international event is expected to attract 22,000 industry professionals to address the strategic, operational and technology aspects of the region’s oil and gas industry.

Mr Cheyne said: “The Asian oil and gas market continues to go from strength to strength and we see OSEA as an important date on our calendar in terms of speaking to key players in the industry. Our business is focussed on delivering world class products to a world market and our visit to Singapore allows us an opportunity to also speak to the right people in the broader region.”

The ACE Winches AHC Control System is designed to ensure the constant deployment or retrieval of the winch hook load and to eliminate or reduce its movement related to external movements of the winch assembly. The system uses a Motion Reference Unit (MRU) to sense change in position of the winch in relation to the movement of the vessel onto which the winch is mounted. The information from the MRU, via a PLC control system, drives the winch in our out to compensate for the movement.

AHC winches filter out the effect of wave movement, allowing for more accurate data readings, increasing equipment safety and reducing weather-related down times. Systems prevent unwanted undulation or heavy sea movement causing sudden slack or pull on cables making the equipment at the end of the umbilical unstable.

The ACE system includes an MRU Module and operator’s control console with PLC system interface and information screen, HPU mounted control panel with PLC computer module, winch interface and system configuration interface connection.

To be able to deal with five-metre waves within an eight second period wire speeds of 2.4m/sec with 1.9m/sec/sec a high power winch drive system is required. The ACE standard gearbox assembly has a high power capability combined with a very high power to weight ratio utilising Hagglunds compact motor and brake assemblies to give a very compact winch drive arrangement. This is ideal for reduction of deck space usage. The gearbox assembly is already performing in demanding marine and offshore environments.

The ACE Winches project team are currently testing an AHC winch system that has been ordered for deployment off the coast of Angola and the results are promising, according to Project Team Leader George French.

Mr French said: “ACE Winches has worked with Scantrol controls for some 20 years working in the early years on fishing trawlers working with a system of heave compensation to ensure the safety of trawling equipment by using electronics to enhance the capabilities of hydraulic winches. ACE Winches has used this heave compensation system experience in many systems supplied to the offshore industry not only in new equipment manufacture, but also in the large comprehensive hire fleet.

“Sensing the movement of the vessel is a widely used technology, utilising a six-axis accelerometer to measure the movement. The difficult part is knowing what reaction to provide in relation to the movement sensed. This is where the ACE Scantrol system utilises a dynamic program which works with a figure print system database to carry out predictive analysis providing the operator with information on the extent of working capabilities. This allows the operator to be aware of his working envelope,“ added Mr French.

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