The world’s largest shipbuilding company Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) developed a new concept container ship that does not require fixing of boxes.
The South Korean company gained design approval for the “Lashing Free Container Ship” from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and the Liberian Flag Administration.
HHI explains, “A container vessel loads a box inside a cargo hold in order to load the maximum amount of containers, closes the hatch cover, which is a cargo hold cover, and loads the container again on it. At this time, it is necessary to fix the container loaded on the hatch cover to a steel structure called a lashing bridge that serves as a support to prevent the vessel from moving during operation. This is called ‘lashing’.”
The lashing-free container ship idea of Hyundai Heavy Industries uses a new concept device called ‘portable bench (trade name: SkyBenchV2)’ that receives the load of the container loaded on the upper deck and transfers it to the hull. The Cell Guide, a device that allows vertically aligned stacking, has been extended above the deck.
HHI said that as the container loaded on the upper deck is fixed by the expanded cell guide, there is no need for lashing.
“By applying the portable bench, lashing, which takes a lot of time and cost, can be omitted, so the convenience and efficiency of container unloading work are expected to be greatly improved,” commented the company.
In addition, the structure in which the container on the deck is trapped in the cell guide makes it possible to fix the container more stably than the existing lashing bridge structure, preventing accidents from collapsing or losing the container in rough seas, and also fundamentally preventing safety accidents that occur during lashing work, according to the company’s statement.
Hyundai Heavy Industries has completed domestic and foreign patent applications for lashing-free container ships and portable benches.
“The lashing-free containership is a new concept technology that can fundamentally eliminate lashing-related work, which is a major challenge in the containership industry, and cargo loss,” said Wonho Joo, head of Hyundai Heavy Industries’ technical division.
