No escaping IT at SMM 2002

	IT was strongly represented at record-breaking SMM 2002.

There was, literally, no escaping IT at this year’s SMM 2002, the world’s leading shipbuilding exhibition. It met you at the door in the shape of a brand new electronic ticket booking and visitor registration system deployed for the first time in Hamburg. The new system pointed up far more than just the need to cope quickly and efficiently with large bodies of people interested in shipbuilding.
It also reflected the increasing importance of IT and communications technology for the industry, particularly new systems of automatic identification and less expensive communications equipment on land and at sea. The continuing trend towards integrated automation solutions for navigation and communications was also well documented at SMM 2002.
This year’s Shipbuilding, Machinery & Marine Technology exhibition, held Sept 24-28, was the 20th of its kind and the biggest ever. Organisers said a record 1,414 exhibitors from 52 countries showed cutting-edge technology on 65,000 sq m of space and nearly 730 firms were represented.

40,000 visitors
Visitor totals were also well up from 37,000 in 2000 to 40,000 this year and that, if nothing else, it was a good reason for Hamburg Messe to tread new territory with the integrated electronic visitor registration system, incorporating entry and cash-less credit card payment functions.
The Internet was also drawn strongly into the concept. Visitors with complimentary entrance vouchers from exhibitors were able to use their own home-based PCs to pre-register for SMM 2002 with the SMM Home Page.
They received a booking confirmation and a registration code by e-mail and could use this information to access the Express Entry Line at the exhibition grounds and obtain a personalised badge.
Booking this year was just as easy for those without a comp ticket. They could buy it by credit card on the web from SMM’s Home Ticketing Service and print it out at home, ensuring automatic registration, Express Line access and personal badge. Elsewhere, organisers said progress in shipbuilding communication technology, which they said was faster than in almost any other area, was apparent at SMM 2002.
SMM observers said this year’s exhibition demonstrated a discernible trend towards higher speeds – not only for freight and passenger ships and equipment but also in business and production processes at shipyards and in marine equipment supply companies. Those processes were also getting faster and increasing, something evident in the range of management software and IT systems on offer at SMM 2002 and confirmed by the high attendance at workshops and conferences, the observers said.
Great interest was shown in the Euroship e-business conference, where the future of web-based online purchasing relationships between shipyards and suppliers was discussed. It was staged by Euroyards, an association of major European shipyards, among them the French Alstom Marine Chantier de l’Atlantique, Fincantieri in Italy, Izar in Spain and Germany’s HDW and Meyer Werft.
Fair organisers noted that the development of new equipment was being stimulated both by the demand for ever faster and less expensive ship/shore data and information transmission and also by new IMO regulations, like this year’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) changes on voyage data recorders and automatic identification systems.
Several companies presented new universal automatic identification systems.
MARCOM premiered its Automatic Identification System AIS and Automatic Information Service System AISS, developed with Hamburg’s Ship Registration Service (SMD) and the firms ITSteps24 and Robotron.
ELNA showed the Sailor UAIS 1800 transponder while STN ATLAS Marine Electronics presented the UAIS DEBEG 3400 system that provides alphanumeric and graphics data, including traffic information.
McMurdo from the UK also had a new UAIS on display.

New transmission standards
The new transmission standard Inmarsat Fleet introduced this February has stimulated the development of units that are smaller and far less expensive than the preceding generation.
NERA had reacted very quickly, fair organisers noted, and had already installed a preliminary series of ten new NERA F77 systems, one on the German Navy frigate Brandenburg.
The Nera F77 gives the user high-speed ISDN with 64kbps for fast data transmission as well as enhanced voice transmission and fax functions.
Danish manufacturer Thrane & Thrane showed its TT-3084A Capsat Fleet77 at SMM 2002 and reports said JRC also has a hardware development in the pipeline.
The Sailor SC 4000 Iridium Terminal, specially developed for the maritime market and reviving Iridium service, was described as an important contribution to “global understanding”.
The aerial is installed outside so that the unit can also be used inside the ship. Inexpensive access to global satellite communications was also offered by the new Tracphone 252, fully compatible with Inmarsat mini-M, from the Danish company KVH.
This company’s TracNet provided a new high-speed Internet access via satellite.
China was this year’s SMM partner country, booking contracts for new ships worth USD 600 million. The show was however also, not surprisingly, “an excellent platform for Chinese exhibitors for the transfer of know-how in the electronics area” a Chinese Defence Ministry official said.
Contracts in the electronic communications sector at SMM 2002 included a 6 million euro order placed with Hamburg’s Atlas Marine Electronics by Germany’s Kröger Shipyard.
It covered the delivery two 1,900 kW pod drives, the electric drive for a Schottel Pump Jet, transformers, generators and switch boards and the entire electrical supply for a new 94 m research vessel being built at Kröger Werft for delivery in 2004.
Kiel company Raytheon Marine booked two integrated bridge control systems for two Norwegian offshore construction vessels. Worth half a million euros each, they were described as currently the most advanced navigation and communication systems in the world.
No one will argue with Herbert von Nitzsch, head of Germany’s Thyssen Werften, which groups the Blohm + Voss shipyard group in Hamburg and Thyssen Nordseewerke (TNSW) in Emden.
He predicted that IT was likely to become “a very important field” in shipbuilding innovation in future. He said Thyssen Werften was “examining the possibilities of this as we search for innovative solutions in shipbuilding”. Among other things, the concern was taking part in R&D projects with Germanischer Lloyd and the Hamburg-Harburg Technical University (TUHH), he said.

Tom Todd

Tillbaka till SSG 9, October 18

Latest update 18-10-2006 8:49

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