Rugged Controls has recently developed a new rental fleet of tension measuring links, shackles, running line tensiometers, and data-logging equipment. This fleet of devices will measure line tension up to 1,000,000lbs.
“Over the years, we have offered equipment for bollard pull testing and certification for tugboats and now we have invested in and made available a fleet of rental devices so that more naval architects, tugboat operations managers, and engineers can perform these services on their own,” said Tom Rezanka, Vice President Rugged Controls.
Rugged Controls tension monitoring systems include a certified tension link, local display and a laptop PC with data-logging software. Rezanka explains, “The system is plug-and-play for quick set up which allows for more time testing and lower fuel costs. The engineer can now watch the tension locally, but also know that the data-logging software is catching every spike and valley for post-test analysis.” The WinchDAC software prints easy-to-read PDFs of each test.
Rugged Controls equipment is certified regularly on ABS certified test beds and Rugged Controls will work with certifying witnesses from DNV, ABS, Lloyds, Bureau Veritas and any other required certifying body.
Recently, Rugged Controls supported The Glosten Associates work with a tugboat bollard pull test in Coos Bay, Oregon. The trials were to test and verify the anticipated bollard pull of a number of tugs. “The Rugged Controls tension monitoring system and engineer provided the tension data that we required to perform our analysis,” said Ken Lane. “The Rugged Controls system captured the line tension data easily which allowed us to focus on other experimental issues. Their data collection tools allowed us to efficiently post-process data and complete the analysis. We would work with Rugged Controls on this kind of testing again.”
