OREANDA-NEWS. September 04, 2015. The shipbuilding company VARD Group AS in Norway has announced a contract for a shrimp stern trawler to be designed and equipped by Rolls-Royce. The fishing vessel has been ordered by a Canadian company. The contract is worth in excess of ?6 million to Rolls-Royce.

The vessel is of Rolls-Royce NVC 374 design and will be around 80 metres long featuring an ICE 1A* ice class hull. It will be equipped with a wide range of Rolls-Royce equipment, including a B33:45 main engine, Promas propulsion, and a power electric system with hybrid shaft generator (HSG). The Rolls-Royce package also includes a tunnel thruster, automation, and winches.

The new vessel will be equipped with fishing winches driven by permanent magnet (PM) engines. The contract represents the first commercial sale of this innovative technology developed by Rolls-Royce. PM technology was first launched by Rolls-Royce to drive thrusters more efficiently, silently and with less vibration. The PM winch engine is particularly suited to applications that operate in harsh conditions and combine a need for sensitive control and rapid changes in pull and speed.

Operational efficiency in ice, low emissions, crew comfort, safety and excellent seakeeping capabilities have been the main considerations in the development of the ship design and complete equipment package.

“Our ship design capability and advanced equipment help build the most effective and modern fishing vessels in the world,” said Monrad Hide, Rolls-Royce, VP Sales & Contract for Fish and Special Purpose Vessels. “Decades of world-class research, development, and industry knowledge combined with close cooperation with our customers allow us to help them maximise the efficiency of their fishing operations.”

“We’re delighted to once again be working with Vard on the construction of a sophisticated and highly capable vessel, and to also secure another contract for our new B33:45 engine which is gaining popularity across a range of vessels sine we launched it last year.”

The vessel’s main engine is the medium-speed Bergen B33:45 from Rolls-Royce. This engine offers a 20% increase in power per cylinder compared to existing engines in the Bergen range. The engines are economical with a specific fuel consumption of 177g /kWh at full load and comply with IMO Tier II and III rules. The Bergen B33:45 is designed to run for 25,000 hours between major maintenance when operating at average loads. Since its market introduction last September the B33:45 has been selected to power five fishing vessels.

The Rolls-Royce Hybrid Shaft Generator (HSG) is an advanced electric power control system for conditioning the electrical power coming from a shaft generator. It allows shaft speed to be reduced whilst maintaining a constant frequency for the electrical supply throughout the ship. This permits a much more flexible use of engine and propeller speed variations to maximise both propeller and engine efficiencies by running them at their design points. This has the benefit of improving fuel efficiency, reducing emissions and also significantly reduces operating costs.

The vessel encompasses an onboard factory for the production of a variety of shrimps, and has a storage capacity of 2,100m3 on specialized decks for palletized cargo. There are also two packaging holds on two decks.

The vessel is to be delivered from VARD’s Aukra yard in Norway in December 2016.

About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

  1. Rolls-Royce’s vision is to create better power for a changing world via two main business divisions, Aerospace and Land & Sea. These business divisions address markets with two strong technology platforms, gas turbines and reciprocating engines. Aerospace comprises Civil Aerospace and Defence Aerospace. Land & Sea comprises Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
  2. Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 120 countries, comprising more than 380 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
  3. Our business is focused on the 4Cs:
    • Customer – placing the customer at the heart of our business
    • Concentration – deciding where to grow and where not to
    • Cost – continually looking to increase efficiency
    • Cash – improving financial performance.
  4. Annual underlying revenue was ?14.6 billion in 2014, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at ?76.5 billion at 30 June 2015.
  5. In 2014, Rolls-Royce invested ?1.2 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.
  6. Rolls-Royce employs over 54,000 people in more than 50 countries. Over 15,500 of these are engineers.
  7. The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2014 we employed 354 graduates and 357 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes. Globally we have over 1,000 Rolls-Royce STEM ambassadors who are actively involved in education programmes and activities; we have set ourselves a target to reach 6 million people through our STEM outreach activities by 2020.