Wilhelmsen Ships Service has introduced an innovative fibre rope technology that reduces recoil should it snap during mooring – the snap back arrestor (SPA).
Despite the industry’s best intentions such as designating hazardous snap-back zones on mooring decks, or the drawing up of detailed line management and mooring plans, mooring remains an incredibly high-risk task, said Wilhelmsen Ships Service. Serious and fatal accidents continue to happen on an all too regular basis.
The SBA is an energy-absorbing core that sits within the company’s Timm Master 12-strand plaited, mixed polymer rope. If the outer, load-bearing construction breaks, the SBA absorbs the snap-back forces, transforming them from a potentially deadly snap to a safer slump.
In development for close to seven years, the Timm SBA is the result of a laborious process of trial and error. 25 different variants of the system were put through their paces in more than 120 different tests.
Wilhelmsen Ships Service identified a viable alternative in early 2016, and DNV GL verified the solution in May 2016. Since then the Timm Master 12 SBA has been exhaustively tested in both dry and wet conditions.
“The SBA is a massive step forward in maritime rope safety, significantly mitigating the considerable risks personnel are exposed to during mooring,” said Veronika Aspelund, business manager, ropes, Wilhelmsen Ships Service. “Using the same material composition as our best-selling premium Timm Master 8 rope, Timm Master 12 SBA is buoyant, light, reliable, features anti-twist colours and offers one of the best strength-to-weight ratios on the market.”
The rope has been produced according to ISO 9554:2010 and ISO 10556:2009 and tested according to ISO 2307:2010 standards. It has also been tested according to the fourth edition of the OCIMF mooring equipment guidelines.
