Triton were contracted by a joint venture between Bateman BV (Johannesburg Office) and Multiplex (Australian) to design, what is described as a “Self Loading, Self Unloading, Self Propelled, Manned Material Handling Barge” for the transport of Titanium based raw products between a custom built 350m long conveyor jetty, and an awaiting handi size bulk carrier, some 7 to 10 Nm off Moma in Mozambique.
The Joint Venture is also developing the dune mine and supplying the pond dredgers. The barge being but one part of their larger project.
The transhipment barge is classed ABS, and was built by ASL Shipyards (Singapore).
The barge carries 2000 tonnes of product in each of its two silo’s. These silos are discharged into the bulkcarrier by means of a series of conveyors, a bucket elevator and a slewing boom conveyor.
The Material Handling Plant was designed by BMH (Sweden) and integrated into the Triton designed barge.
The barge is equipped with self rendering, self tensioning winches for holding alongside the jetty during loading and alongside the ship during discharge. She is also equipped with 4 x 500 Kw 360deg azimuth rudder propeller type HRP thrusters, controlled by a single joystick control system.
Although the area is known for its calm weather, most of the year, it is also a tropical cyclone zone, thus the barge is equipped with a three point cyclone mooring system, to wait out such a storm, whilst anchored away from the jetty.
All aspects of the barge design were performed by Triton, including motion studies, mooring studies, powering calculations, stability, finite element analysis and structural detailing. The electrical and hydraulic design, being performed in consultation with Raubicon and Basic, respectively.