In preparation for the Winch and Wire Symposium scheduled for 30 November and 1 December in New Orleans a questionnaire was sent to the sea going science community. The questionnaire asked what are the future directions of your sea-going science over the next decade and what shipboard requirements will be necessary to conduct future at-sea operations. The responses were analyzed by members of the Winch and Wire Steering Committee with summary reports divided into six different groups; biology, chemistry, physics, geology, ocean engineering and operations. Below are the summary reports.
Biological Oceanography – Ken Smith
Summary of responses from biologists to the winch and wire questionnaire
There were a total of five responses to the questionnaire by biologists. The general consensus was that more of the same is all that is needed. There were no new technologies or novel applications suggested that do not exist today. I have added some of my own shipboard requirements that expand upon several of those given by the five respondents.
Summary of responses from chemist to the winch and wire questionnaire.
Wire types (Cutter, Johnson) - there is a strong need to make non-metallic (or at least non-contaminating for trace metals) wires available. New wire types will have to be as robust as the 0.322 UNOLS standard cable to achieve wide acceptance. Currently, Kevlar cables aren't there yet. The Japanese use titanium conducting cable to support rosette samplers for trace metal work. Large36-place rosette's tax conventional 0.322 wire capability.
Winches (Cutter, Honjo, Johnson, Von Damm) - Winches need to be flexible
to adapt to a variety of applications in a rapid manner. This may include
replacing drums or over wrapping steel wire with Kevlar Level winds must
be adaptable to different cable diameters in this case. Switching from
rock coring to CTD work must be easily accomplished. Mooring deployment
is becoming an increasingly complicated process. A need for winches that
can
deploy large moorings in the "anchor-first" mode (rather than streaming
the mooring and then releasing the anchor) is clear.
Over side equipment handling (Honjo, Ingall) - Mooring deployments will require the capability to carry out complicated operations over the stern. A variety of free vehicles are deployed for benthic chemical studies and this requires cranes with reasonable (2000 lb) over-the-side lift capacity. Piston coring will continue to be a major effort. Communications (Massoth) - A need for video exists.
The trace metal perspective (K. Johnson): Our group has been heavily involved in trace metals analysis, particularly iron in seawater. We find the current wire systems found on UNOLS vessels to be inadequate for this purpose. Steel wires, particularly rusty ones, invariably lead to contamination of the sample and erroneous measurements. We, therefore, use Kevlar line and cable for a lot of our work. This approach is used by a number of labs throughout the US and Europe. Kevlar, however, comes with its own problems that need to be solved. Note that the Japanese avoid Kevlar problems by using titanium cables (with conductors) for trace metal work.
The Trace Metals Lab at MLML owns or supports 4 winches equipped with Kevlar wires. Two of these winches are equipped with ¼" 7x19 Kevlar rope with a Polyester jacket. These systems are used to lower 2 or 430 liter Go-Flo bottles. There are no conductors. This is a very low-tech system, but provides the cleanest method for sampling trace metals that we have found.
We have also recently built several trace metal-free rosettes for the JGOFS program, which are equipped with 8 30 liter Go-Flo bottles. Each of these systems uses a ½" Kevlar cable with 3 18 ga. conductors and a urethane coating. This is better than standard equipment, with respect to metal contamination. It is not as good as the two bottle approach, because each individual bottle can be carried into a filtered air, clean van for processing, while the rosette and its bottles must remain on deck, exposed to metal contamination from the ship.
The ½" Kevlar has proven problematic and two catastrophic line failures have occurred in the past 5 years with complete loss of the rosettes. One failure occurred in about 12' seas in the Arabian Sea, while the system was deployed on the THOMPSON. The line parted 1 to 2 m above the termination. This illustrates one problem - Kevlar needs exceptional care and may not stand up well with casual users. The maximum working load of the ½" Kevlar cable is 2,000 lbs, with a breaking strength of 15,000 lbs. The load did not approach that, which suggests that the Kevlar had suffered some hidden damage, perhaps due to kinking. Our group was not aboard the ship during this cruise.
The second failure occurred in calm conditions in the Antarctic, while the system was deployed on the PALMER. A compression grip, recommended by the cable manufacturer, was used to terminate the cable and support the load. The grip failed for two apparent reasons. The compression grip, which was the correct size, bottomed out so that the compressible inner sleeve was completely compressed metal to metal. It also appears that the urethane coating was not embedded well enough into the reinforcement braid. As a result, the grip was primarily holding urethane and not Kevlar. The rosette was lost.
A second issue arises regarding the winches required for this work. We generally transport our own winches, which is quite laborious. It is possible to overwrap the Kevlar onto a conventional winch, if the level wind can be easily adapted to the different diameter. However, changing the diamonds seems to be considered a major headache on with most winches. Future designs should incorporate level winds that are easily adaptable to a variety of cable.
Finally, we hate lubricant on the cable and winches - it leads to severe metal contamination problems.
Physical Oceanography – Bob Pickart
Summary of responses from physical oceanographers to the winch and wire questionnaire
There were only five responses to the W/W questionnaire from physical oceanographers; none of them were very extensive or technical. However, a common theme clearly emerged in that future sea-going operations will involve SeaSoar work more and more. Four of the five responses made explicit reference to this (I feel the same way as well). At this point individual institutions tend to have their own SeaSoar groups (the number of such groups is growing rapidly). Hence when a UNOLS vessel stages a SeaSoar cruise, all of the equipment---including the winches and wires---are supplied by the user. I would like to see this change, since this is both somewhat inefficient and expensive. Hopefully it will only be a matter of time before SeaSoars are part of the ship-supplied instrument pool on UNOLS vessels. In theory there is no reason why this cannot be the case, provided the community agrees on the standard configuration and equipment.
Hence, based on the PO responses, some effort should be made during the W/W symposium to address the ability to implement SeaSoar routinely and efficiently on UNOLS vessels. This means having effective fiber optic/copper cables (up to half-dozen conductors) with appropriate sheaves to handle increased amounts of data coming up the line at faster and faster rates. It means having winches and wires that can handle such packages at speeds up to 12 knots. Other aspects requiring discussion are fiber optic cable terminations, usage of and availability of faring, and appropriate documentation of a UNOLS SeaSoar system in some type of a manual.
I also quizzed members of the PO technical community. Concerns included the proper maintenance and lubrication of the UNOLS wire pool, both at sea and ashore (i.e. decide on a fleet-wide protocol for maintenance and actually carry it out). Inconsistency in CTD terminations seems to be a problem (again decide on a standard). There was also a desire to have more at-sea flexibility for using different winches and wires on the same cruise (e.g. swapping drums (hydro vs. CTD), providing more CTD winches, better procedures for at-sea spooling). Another concern, raised by scientists and technicians alike, involved deficiency in the present breaking strength of CTD wire, particularly with the increasing need for working in marginal weather and with bigger and bigger packages.
Geological Oceanography – Sherm Bloomer
Summary of responses from geologists to the winch and wire questionnaire
There were 28 responses in this area, ranging from scientists with
principally water chemistry interests (water sampling, rosette work) to
the petrologic community interested largely in seafloor imaging and sampling.
The responses and discussions identified five general issues:
a. A need to handle heavier loads on wire, for lifting larger instrument
and sampling packages;
b. A need to routinely provide “new” wire types. The most important
of these is fiber optic wire for instruments requiring high rates of data
transfer. Also noted was a need for conducting Kevlar wire for clean
trace metal sampling.
c. A need to be able to quickly and easily change between wire types,
particularly between “low-tech” (wires for standard dredging, coring, etc.)
and “high-tech” wires (conducting, fiber optic, Kevlar).
d. A need to upgrade our ability to do “more-of-the-same”—ensuring
that we have high-speed, reliable winches
e. A need to address ancillary support services on the deck—cranes
to handle large loads in the air, open rail space, heave compensation,
power, etc.
A comment that was raised in many of the responses was the importance
of reliability in the winches and ancillary equipment. Several people
noted in passing tales of winches that were marginal or unreliable, a crane
that was near its working capacity, and so on. It is clear
there is some concern about maintaining and improving the reliability of
present systems, as well as moving to new wire configurations.
Some detailed comments that were raised in reference to each of these issues:
1. Heavier loads on wire:
2. “New” wire types:
3. Changing between wire types
4. More-of-the-same
5. Ancillary support services
Summary of responses from ocean engineers to the winch and wire questionnaire
Following is a summary of the main issues and suggestions that relate to ocean engineering types of interest. Since ocean engineering is inherently multidisciplinary, some of the comments may be included in other reports. I have reviewed 30 of the responses to the questionnaire as indicted in the attached listing. Only a few of the responses were very specific.
Lift Capacity: The trend is clearly toward needing larger lift capacities for winches and cables/wires. The main justifications are a) larger, longer, heavier coring systems, b) reuse of telecommunication cables, c) rock dredging, and d) rock drilling. However, one person complained that wires are getting too big for some types of work that would benefit from having smaller/lighter cables.
Cable/Wire Matefials: There is a clear need for non-metallic cables such as Kevlar.
Cable Configuration: Several responders expressed a need for multi-conductor wires/cables and most would like fiber-optic cables.
Winches: Lebus shells and level-wind equipment should be simplified. For some applications it would be advantageous to overlay different cables on the same drum, ex: Kevlar over steel. Traction winches needed for some types of cable.
Handling: For some new applications, there is a need for stronger and higher A-Frames and associated equipment. Non-metallic sheaves and Kevlar cables. Some applications require high towing speeds of 10-14 kts.
Other issues/comments:
General Comments:
It may not be realistic to provide a wide range of capabilities for all vessels. Obviously the smaller vessels have limitations for deck space, handling equipment, traction winches, etc. Therefore, we need to be selective in the planning/strategy process. Perhaps certain ships can be designated for certain tasks, especially for the more challenging types of operations. For example, large, long (heavy) coring from two ships on each coast, SeaSoar on other ships, etc.
Research Vessel Operators – Tom Althouse
Summary of responses from Research Vessel Operators to the winch and wire questionnaire
The Research Vessel operators are facing several intertwined challenges in planning for the future. These include:
a. deployment of larger and heavier equipment packages
b. desire of the scientific community for faster data transfer
c. need for greater wire/winch flexibility during operations
d. maximizing benefits from employment of new technologies
e. meeting demands of users for faster winch speeds
f. desire of science community to use smaller ships for complex cruises
Larger, heavier packages (ROPOS, PROD, long piston cores, etc.) require upgraded handling equipment (A-frames, Hydro booms, cranes, etc.) and cables with higher breaking strengths. This leads to significant structural considerations. Crane capacities must be evaluated to determine if improvement in this area, without loss of valuable deck space, especially on smaller ships, can be achieved. Faster data rates can be provided by fiber optic or multiple conductor cables. These cables are not yet in the standard UNOLS inventory and most existing winches and wire paths would have to be modified to handle them. Should these cables be added to the UNOLS inventory? If so, how do we determine the standard shipload of wires?
The trend toward multi-disciplined cruises requires ability to shift between various cables in the inventory. On the large ships, this can usually be accomplished by properly configuring the installed winches or by the addition of portable winches. The more limited winch suite on most of the smaller UNOLS ships along with limited deck space for portable winches currently impacts the ability to provide a wide selection of cables during a single cruise.
Current UNOLS winch suites are not geared to the employment of KEVLAR and other synthetic fiber cables. This problem must be studied to determine if that capability can be developed. Other new technologies may exist that will benefit science at sea. These need to be identified and evaluated. Operators continually receive requests for 'faster' winch speeds to reduce wire times. 100 meter per minute speeds are not considered fast enough by some projects. Is there any reason to search for greater deployment speeds for, say, CTD's and dredges in view of their inherent terminal velocity in the water column? Can winches with greater speeds be designed to operate safely? Would they be maintainable by ships' crews in remote areas?
Finally, operators of smaller ships indicated that they feel the need to provide 9/16", .680 level capabilities and the ability to rapidly reconfigure winches for different wires than normally provided. In view of the structure and space requirements for these capabilities, these may not be realistic assumptions.