Compagnie Maritime D'expertises

Henri Chetoni

Vincent Bianco

Paul D Grognu

Apparatus for handling a submersible device, such as a diving bell, includes a winch mounted on a support structure and having a suspension cable with a free end at which the submersible device is suspended, a guide structure fixed to the support structure and having two guidance ramps, each having a portion thereof extending below a water surface, a traveller having two parallel side members with a guidance device thereon which slidably cooperates with the two guidance ramps, a pulley back including two upper pulleys secured to the guide structure and a movable lower pulley fixed to the traveller with the suspension cable passing over the upper and lower pulleys so as to form n strands, and a locking device for releasably connecting the submersible device to the traveller. The submersible device is lowered into the water with the traveller at a slow speed equal to the unwinding speed of the cable from the winch divided by the number of strands n formed by the pulley block until the submersible device completely passes the air-water interface and is then disconnected from the traveller and lowered further into the water at the cable unwinding speed so as to eliminate the effect of the pulley block. The reverse operation is used for raising the submersible device out of the water.

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Allauch, France

Henri Chetoni