Core components 100% domestically produced: Dalian HaiDa and Nantong Liwei jointly developed a full-ocean-depth geological winch system

Oceanographic research vessels, as the fundamental platforms for marine investigation and research, represent a nation's comprehensive national strength. Deep-sea geological winch systems, used for the deployment and recovery of deep-sea geological sampling instruments, are essential equipment on 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, which has restricted 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 "Research and Development of Full-Ocean-Depth Geological Winch System" 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.

Geological winch systems for deep-sea research vessels are almost entirely imported, urgently requiring domestic production.

The project leader, Professor Li Wenhua from the School of Marine Engineering at Dalian Maritime University, introduced that the geological winch system is used for geological sampling, bottom trawling sampling, and instrument deployment on research vessels. It 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 a full-ocean-depth geological winch system 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 "Research and Development of Full-Ocean-Depth Geological Winch System" project led by Nantong Liwei Machinery Co., Ltd., was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The project has 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. Leveraging the Ministry of Science and Technology's "International Joint Research Center for Underwater Engineering Technology and Equipment," the Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Ship Electromechanical Integration, and the Dalian Municipal Engineering Technology Research Center for Marine Equipment at Dalian Maritime University, along with the existing technological foundation of Nantong Liwei Machinery Co., Ltd., the team collaborated with the 708th Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, Harbin Engineering University, the 710th Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd., Shanghai Rainbowfish Ocean Technology Co., Ltd., Jully Group Co., Ltd., and Zhejiang Sxiong Rope Industry Co., Ltd. to conduct joint technological research.

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

Professor Li Wenhua introduced that the project addressed 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 conducted 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 in all waters 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 indicators of this geological winch system have fully met and in some aspects exceeded the levels of similar mainstream foreign products. It is the first full-ocean-depth geological winch system in China to have both China Classification Society (CCS) and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) certifications, 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 research and development of the full-ocean-depth geological winch system, forming an industry-academia-research innovation and development model. The research results 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 covering 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 belonging to 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 a "product research and application" innovation and development model, providing reliable support for China's marine scientific research to "go to the open ocean, go deep, and go to the polar regions."