Metro Machine Corporation

Deepsea Ventures, Inc.

Marinex International, Inc.

Tidewater Equipment Corporation

Charles A Garland

Richard A Goldbach

James A McMichael

Frank E McConnell

John P Latimer

Edmund G Tornay

Robert D Goldbach

William A Wagner

Joseph Cuneo

Each of a plurality of cargo holds of a bulk carrier vessel has a self-contained staging system lowered into it, from the platform track of which workers operate semi-automatic blasting machines that are mounted onto the platform. The set-up for each vessel also includes, for each hold, a ventilation unit provided on a hatch plug, and a transporter for the staging system. Groups of staging systems are served by on-deck air compressors. Staging systems actually engaging in blasting are served by recycling shot blast units which recycle and supply steel shot. Following blast cleaning, the cleaned surfaces are painted from the platforms.

Self-contained staging system for cleaning and painting bulk cargo holds

For cleaning and/or painting the exterior of a ship hull while the ship is in dry dock, one or more staging devices are provided. Each includes a metal framework tower supporting a vertically movable elevator assembly that comprises a trolley, from which a variably laterally projecting platform is supported on articulated, cantilevered arms. Adjustable, non-porous shrouds enclose a volume of space between the outside of the tower and an increment of one side of the exterior of the ship hull, from above, fore, aft and outside. Cleaning and painting operations are conducted from the platform on the hull increment, and debris is removed from the dry-dock deck area enclosed by the shroud, after which the device is moved by crane, typically twenty feet (6.1 m), towards the ship's bow or stern. The shrouds are then adjusted so that a further hull increment can be worked on. The trolley and extension-retraction of the platform support arms are operated by electrohydraulic winch and hydraulic cylinders, respectively. The margins of the shroud may be fastened by magnets to the hull. Air drawn through the enclosed volume from above, is drawn out near the dry-dock deck for processing to remove dust and appropriately treat VOCs, if present.

Apparatus and method for performing external surface work on ships' hulls

The parallel midbody for the hull of a tanker is fabricated of modules, each made of double-walled longitudinal subassemblies welded to one another and to a bulkhead. The subassemblies are made of outer cylindrically curved plates welded edge to edge, and inner cylindrically curved plates welded edge to edge. Longitudinal rib plates are extended between and are welded into joints between curved plates in the inner and outer hulls. The curved plates are convex towards the exterior of the vessel. At respective transitions between the bottom and sides, the inner and outer hulls have bilge radii which approximate in size the radii of curvature of others of the plates including ones both adjacent to and remote from the bottom-to-side transitions. A fixture for facilitating welding of the T-joints of the subassemblies is provided. The subassemblies and modules are fabricated in an up-ended orientation. Each successively completed module is tilted-over and joined to the growing midbody with the aid of a variable buoyancy barge and a caisson pontoon.

Vessel hull and construction method

Apparatus to direct the flow of water passing towards and alongside of a dredgehead (of the type, for example, utilized to obtain valuable mineral ores from the ocean depths) in a downwardly direction, so as to utilize the force of the water to assist the dredgehead in loosening and removing any particulate ore nodules from the ocean floor. The flow-directing means includes two transverse elements, one extending substantially longitudinally along the length of the dredgehead and the second transversely connecting the vertical element to the dredgehead.

Dredgehead having forward water-deflecting means comprising two

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Norfolk, VA, United States of America

Charles A Garland