Modern oceanographic research is complex, and the costs of operating marine survey and research vessels are escalating rapidly. Therefore, research instrumentation and ancillary equipment must be carefully selected to be applicable to as wide a variety of tasks as possible and to accomplish these tasks quickly with high reliability.

Pursuant to this philosophy, InterOcean systems designs and manufactures a variety of standard and custom made wire rope and electrical cable winches. Standard models fill needs from light duty, small boat operations to heavy duty shipboard winch applications. Choosing one of the standard models has the advantage of prompt delivery. Prices are also minimized due to production quantities.

Application engineers may be consulted, and modifications made to standard designs, or a special winch may be designed. A unique computer program performs the many calculations needed and optimizes the design.

This process keeps engineering and design costs to a minimum, and tailors the special design and selection of components to utilize standard components and sub-assemblies as much as possible. Therefore, you don't pay a premium price for one of these custom designed and fabricated winches.

Custom winches assure conformance to almost any set of requirements, and repay the user many times over in convenience, safety, and efficiency. An applications engineer will provide technical details and assistance in selecting the proper winch for the job or provide a technical and cost proposal for a custom winch.

A unique computer program has been written by the InterOcean engineering department to facilitate the design of custom made winches. The inputs to the program are the performance requirements such as capacity, load, speed, drive, brake, clutch and material; and the selected optional features such as level wind, grooved drum and instrumentation equipment such as slip rings, tension load, speed and cable out monitors. The design engineer may very rapidly try several design configurations. Selected modifications are made on each successive attempt until the final design is optimized with respect to convenience, efficiency and economy. These custom designed winches assure conformance to almost any particular set of requirements. Please feel free to consult with our application engineering department and take advantage of this service.

Our winches can be designed to operate off ship electric power (AC or DC), hydraulic or air systems and can be powered by auxiliary diesel, gasoline, battery, or manual sources.

Electric powered winches can be driven from AC or DC sources (ship's mains or dedicated diesel electric sets) and utilize the latest technology in flux vector drives. The flux vector drive converts the input power to a variable frequency AC output with full field and armature control to drive a fully sealed zero maintenance AC motor. The controls are all solid state and permit infinitely variable speed from 2% to 100% of the maximum rated RPM while providing full torque at any RPM down to zero This feature allows full rated cable tension control at zero speed. Microprocessor based controls are provided with RS232 inputs and can be programmed for automated casts, tension and speed control including preprogrammed speed and tension profiles. This control feature also permits direct heave compensation (when supplied with an optional heave sensor) and bottom following which can be controlled by a tow body height above bottom using input from a bottom sensor. Other drive options include direct synchronous or 2 speed AC motors, direct DC or AC supply with SCR controlled DC output driving a DC traction type motor on the winch. These systems have microprocessor based controls similar to the flux vector drives with similar features.

Where ultra fine speed control is not required, and a source of hydraulic pressure is available, it may be desirable to select a direct hydraulic or electro-hydraulic drive system for the winch.

Air motor drive options are available for installations that have a high volume source of compressed air. Air motor drives are commonly required in severe fire hazard areas such as drilling rigs and production platforms. Air driven winches are intrinsically safe and meet the requirements of NEMA Class I Division I.

A reliable braking system is indispensable to convenient and safe operation of a winch. Our winches can be equipped with as many as four braking mechanisms which are operated under different conditions and act as backup systems in case of an emergency.

All winches with electronic drives can be supplied with electrical dynamic braking to absorb energy as the load is slowed.

All hydraulic winches have dynamic braking. Constant speed, preset speed, and torque controls can be installed and combinations of these controls are available. Other braking techniques include wet disk, dry disk and band.

An electrically operated disc brake is provided to engage the main drive shaft.

In the event that electrical power is interrupted, or loss of hydraulic pressure, a fail-safe brake is automatically engaged. This fail-safe brake is also engaged whenever the control is in the neutral or stop position.

When required, manually operated band or disk drum brakes are provided as an additional safety feature.

These brakes offer up to six positive lock points to lock the drum into position.