Damen Shipyards Group has unveiled a Water Injection Dredger (WID), courtesy of a plug & play system aboard a Damen Multi Cat.
Such capabilities are typically found on dedicated platforms, but the Multi Cat’s forward propulsion and manoeuvrability made it a suitable platform for this type of dredging.
Dredging Functionality
The Multi Cat is typically used to assist CSDs on dredging projects, carrying out tasks such as anchor shifting and cutter teeth replacement. Damen realised that, with the addition of dredging components, the Multi Cat might actually be able to take on dredging functionality in a manner that proves the rule ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’.
This is not the first time the Multi Cat has demonstrated such versatility. In the past, Damen has already fitted DOP pumps or a plough on the stern A-frame to carry out sand mining and maintenance dredging activities. The Multi Cat WID dredger will take a different approach. By injecting the silt with high volume, but low pressure water, the accumulated soil will become a density flow and by utilising the current and/or gradient, the silt will be removed from ports and waterways including rivers and channels, offering a cost effective, sustainable approach to dredging.
Plug & Play
This very straightforward approach applies containers – 2 x 40 ft for a 500 mm system and 3 x 40 ft for a 600 mm system – on board a Multi Cat in a plug & play system that can be applied to an existing vessel for added versatility.
Damen Product Director Dredging Olivier Marcus explains: 'After foundations are installed, the modular WID system can be attached or removed without drydocking. What’s more, as the system can also be applied to a modular Multi Cat, the WID can be easily transported anywhere in the world – even inaccessible, out of the way locations.'
