Dalian Maritime University, in conjunction with Nantong Liwei, developed a full-ocean depth geological winch system, with key core components achieving 100% domestic production.

Dalian, December 3 (Reporter Jia Tiesheng, Correspondent Wu Jiangtao) - Research vessels, as the fundamental platforms for marine research, represent a nation's comprehensive strength. Deep-sea geological winch systems, used for deploying and recovering deep-sea geological sampling instruments, are essential equipment for oceanographic research vessels. Currently, almost all geological winch systems used on China's deep-sea research vessels are imported from developed countries such as Norway, hindering the development of supporting equipment for China's research vessels. Recently, a major research breakthrough has been achieved in the national key research and development plan "Deep-sea Key Technologies and Equipment," specifically the "Full-Ocean-Depth Geological Winch System Development" project, involving a research team from Dalian Maritime University. The team successfully developed a full-ocean-depth geological winch system, which has successfully passed the on-shore joint debugging test in the workshop, with key core components achieving 100% domestic production.

Almost all deep-sea research vessel geological winch systems are imported, urgently requiring domestic production.

Professor Li Wenhua, head of the project and professor at the School of Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, introduced that the geological winch system is used for geological sampling, bottom trawling sampling, and instrument deployment on research vessels, and is indispensable equipment in the process of deep-sea resource exploration and development. As marine scientific research gradually moves from nearshore to the open ocean, the operating depth of research vessels is also becoming increasingly deeper. Correspondingly, the cables of the geological winch system are also becoming longer, with the drum capacity exceeding 13,000 meters. This places more stringent requirements on the high-load traction winch, cable laying mechanism, and cable release and control system of the deep-sea geological winch system.

However, almost all geological winch systems used on China's deep-sea research vessels are imported from developed countries such as Norway. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to carry out independent research and development of full-ocean-depth geological winch systems to provide technological support for China's deep-sea resource development and utilization, and the construction of a strong transportation and maritime nation.

In August 2018, recommended by the Ministry of Transport, the national key research and development plan "Deep-sea Key Technologies and Equipment," specifically the "Full-Ocean-Depth Geological Winch System Development" project led by Nantong Liwei Machinery Co., Ltd., was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The project has a total of six sub-projects with a total budget of 20.63 million yuan. Professor Li Wenhua's team from Dalian Maritime University participated in the research work throughout the project, relying on the "International Joint Research Center for Underwater Engineering Technology and Equipment" under the Ministry of Science and Technology of Dalian Maritime University, the Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Ship Electromechanical Integration, and the Dalian Municipal Marine Equipment Engineering Technology Research Center, as well as the existing technical foundation of Nantong Liwei Machinery Co., Ltd. They collaborated with China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation No. 708 Research Institute, Harbin Engineering University, China Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. No. 710 Research Institute, Shanghai Rainbowfish Ocean Technology Co., Ltd., Jully Rope Co., Ltd., and Zhejiang Sxiong Rope Co., Ltd. to carry out technological breakthroughs.

Conquering core technologies mastered by only a few countries, achieving complete independent control.

Professor Li Wenhua introduced that the project addresses issues such as excessive self-weight of traditional steel cables, cable wear and tear, and tangling of large-capacity cables in deep-sea geological winch systems used in far-sea scientific research operations. The project conducts research on the domestic production of full-ocean-depth geological winch systems, breaking through technologies in full-ocean-depth geological winch system structural design and optimization, high-performance high-load traction winch tension reduction, rapid compensation response of cable slack compensators, adaptive multi-redundancy precise control of cable laying devices, and high-precision system integrated intelligent control.

“The winch system we have developed has a maximum operating water depth of 11,000 meters and can conduct geological sampling operations at the maximum depth of all sea areas worldwide. The overall system domestication rate is ≥95%, and the key core component domestication rate is 100%. We have conquered core technologies mastered by only a few countries, achieving complete independent control,” said Professor Li Wenhua. The performance and technical indicators of this geological winch system fully meet and partially exceed those of similar mainstream foreign products. It is the first full-ocean-depth geological winch system in China with dual certification from the China Classification Society (CCS) and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), and the first 13,000-meter seamless synthetic fiber cable in China. The system has successfully passed the on-shore joint debugging test in the workshop.

The project team covers all aspects, forming an industry-academia-research innovation and development model.

"Our project team covers all aspects of the development of the full-ocean-depth geological winch system, forming an industry-academia-research innovation and development model. The research results of the project will have broad application prospects on the many research vessels urgently needed in China. This has profound strategic significance for improving China's deep-sea engineering equipment technology level and building a professional, efficient, intelligent, and green marine scientific research equipment system for all sea areas, depths, and weather conditions," said Professor Li Wenhua. The project is led by enterprises, and the participating units have advantages in shipbuilding and ocean engineering, mechanical engineering, etc., possessing complete engineering design, testing, support, and quality management systems for various types of marine winches, as well as rich experience in research vessel design, sea trials, and operations.

The full-ocean-depth winch system developed by the project team has been installed on the "Xiangyanghong 06" vessel of the North China Sea Bureau of the Ministry of Natural Resources. The next step will be to conduct practical application tests of the deep-sea scientific research winch system and 11,000-meter full-ocean-depth sea trials, forming an "industry-academia-research-application" innovation and development model to provide reliable support for China's marine scientific research cause in "going to the open ocean, going deep, and going to the polar regions."