Although the days when most ships relied on sails for power and ropes to control those sails are long gone, handling ropes and cables is still a vital part of operating a ship. On modern vessels, sailors can take advantage of technology to keep lines under control. This makes winches a vital part of any ship’s equipment, from the largest cargo hauler to the lightest pleasure craft.
Terminology And Mechanics
While the sheer number of different winch designs afloat today is virtually endless, certain basic features make it easy to classify winches and group them according to their similarities. One of the most fundamental divisions is between windlasses and capstans. A capstan winch holds its line on a vertical drum, providing increased torque for heavy-duty jobs. Windlasses are horizontal winches. The distinction between the two types is less significant today than it was in the age of sail, and windlasses are far more common aboard modern ships.
Winches can make use of a variety of power sources to take up or let out lines. Hand-powered winches still have an important role to play on vessels large and small. For major jobs, though, electrical and hydraulic winches are the tools of choice. Hydraulic winches typically appear on larger ships, as they rely on a connection to an existing hydraulic system to draw power. Electric winches are unmatched in their versatility, making them suitable for use in the widest possible range of applications. For different vessels, different winches are designed and customized according to needs and requirements. Here there is some information about marine electric marine winch for reference if you are planning to purchase one, just visit this http://ellsenmarinewinches.com/marine-electric-winch/.
Common Shipboard Winch Applications
Although there are endless shipboard jobs that can benefit from the assistance of a well-placed winch, three of the most common tasks for marine windlass are anchoring, mooring, and towing.
An anchor winch is specifically designed to handle a ship’s anchor efficiently and safely. On smaller vessels, this may well be the ship’s largest, most powerful winch. Anchor winches rely on multi-drum designs to separate the anchor chain from the operational lines used to maneuver it.
Mooring winches become necessary for larger vessels when they tie up to a dock. They allow a ship to pull itself into docking position by applying force from multiple angles. Mooring windlasses still have a role to play after a ship is berthed; they can be used to manipulate a ship’s position or even warp it into a new birth. (Mooring winches intended specifically for this purpose are often called warping winches.)
A towing winch on vessel, as its name suggests, is designed to keep two (or more) vessels linked so that one can provide motive power to the other. Tension on tow lines needs to be carefully controlled to keep both ships safe, and dedicated towing winches also need to be capable of holding large amounts of line on their drums. Purpose-built tugs usually have an extremely large and heavy-duty towing winch; ships which lack this feature will sometimes press another on board winch (e.g. the anchor winch) into service while towing. High quality towing winch plays an important role in ensuring the safe towing operations and avoid towing failure and accidents.
Although the three applications described here are probably the most vital roles for winches in the marine environment, they are by no means the full extent of shipboard uses for these versatile tools. Most ships will mount plenty of additional winches to meet both general needs (e.g. a portable “tugger” winch to apply more force on heavy jobs) and specific requirements (e.g. the trawl winch used to manipulate nets on fishing vessels). Marine winches have different applications on different occasions, Ellsen provides variety of quality winches as your options and you can get more details about various marine winches here through this link www.ellsenmarinewinches.com/.