The cold winter winds sweep through the streets of Åbo (Turku) in Finland, and it feels much colder than the minus 12°C that the thermometer reads. We take a taxi out to a pine-covered area called Kaarina where MacGREGOR is located. Bulk carrier specialist Torbjörn Dahl, Senior Naval Architect, Bulk Ships, Dry Cargo Division, has worked on the topic of hatch covers for the past 15 years.

The story of MacGREGOR does not start in Åbo, but in England. “During the 1920s, concerned over unnecessary losses of North Sea colliers, the engineer Robert MacGregor developed the first steel hatch cover. The simple design consisted of five articulated covers that stowed neatly at the end of each hatch. Patented in 1929, this ground-breaking concept improved ship and cargo safety and changed the face of cargo care forever. In 1937, to promote and sell his steel hatch covers, Robert MacGregor and his brother Joseph formed MacGREGOR & Company in Whitley Bay on the north-east coast of England.” (www.macgregor-group.com)
MacGREGOR delivers standard folding hatch covers for geared mini bulkers, whereas for the Handysize and Handymax they normally specify folding hatch covers. Very wide hatches are increasingly specified to allow for loading of non-bulk cargoes such as steel coils and forest products. For the Panamax and Capesize MacGREGOR normally delivers side rolling hatches. The company also works closely with IACS and IMO to develop new industry standards. For the VLOCs (very large ore carriers) they provide side rolling hatch covers with one or two panels.
“What I would really like to see,” says Dahl when discussing IMO and IACS standards, “is even more coordinated and common rules for bulk carriers and hatch cover solutions. We gave some 100 comments to the Common Structural Rules proposals. As we all know, the IACS common structural rules for bulk carriers were not approved – but here I would urge the class societies to try to make some improvements when it comes to clarify better the interpretation of the rules. Topics to be addressed can be the height of hatch covers. The list of topics is long,” says Dahl who welcomed a good discussion with DNV’s Ulf Freudendahl, director of Bulk Carriers.
“We have a very good competence centre here in Åbo,” continues Dahl. “We use the DNV rules for bulk carriers actively in calculating hull stress and loads when we design our hatch covers. How the vessels behave at sea, including any sloshing, are very important factors for us. As we are hatch cover specialists, we are very dependent on correct calculations from class, as well as class experience on fatigue.
“Today we produce most of our hatches in China, just a little outside of Shanghai. Currently we are engaged in some 150 bulk carrier projects,” says Dahl.
Dahl is also featured in MacGREGOR’s company magazine under the headline: “Innovating to protect the environment.” This clearly focuses on the advantages of replacing hydraulics with environmentally friendly electrical drives. MacGREGOR now introduces a range of cargo systems based on electrical drives instead of hydraulics.
“Environmentally friendly solutions for the shipping industry have become more and more important,” says Dahl. “Electric drivers offer many advantages to shipowners and shipbuilders compared with hydraulic versions. The main advantages are that hydraulic oil leakages are eliminated, there is no need to fit hydraulic pipework on board, electric drives are easy to monitor and maintain and they offer energy savings.” According to the MacGREGOR article, the advantages for owners are many, including: No pollution or damage to goods by hydraulic oil, no hydraulic oil required, maintenance friendly, operation place is not limited, energy saving as no continuous running, all equipment can be operated easily, no problems with cold weather and easy to monitor. To the shipbuilder the advantages include: Cable wiring is easier than piping, no flushing work required, no control stand installation is required, flexible building schedule can be expected, no need for high pressure hydraulics skills and finally no pump unit needed.

Date: 04 February 2008