WO2014044842A1

WO2014044842A1 - A ship configured for transportation of cargo under and at a lower level than the superstructure

Info

Publication number: WO2014044842A1
Application number: PCT/EP2013/069707
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hans Christian Nielsen
Original assignee: Hans Christian Nielsen
Priority date: 2012-09-21
Filing date: 2013-09-23
Publication date: 2014-03-27

Abstract

A ship (1) including a hull (5) and a cargo hold section (20) configured for accommodating containers or flat racks(100). The ship (1) includes means for conveying said containers or flat racks between stowed positions inside said cargo hold section (20) and positions outside said ship (1). The ship further includes, above said cargo hold section (20), roofing (30) providing shelter for cargo stowed in said cargo hold section (20).

Description

A SHIP CONFIGURED FOR TRANSPORTATION OF CARGO UNDER AND AT A LOWER LEVEL THAN THE SUPERSTRUCTURE

The present invention relates in general to a ship configured for carriage of cargo including intermodal cargo such as containers and flat racks and the like.

Accordingly, the present invention relates, according to one aspect, to a ship including a hull and a cargo hold section configured for accommodating intermodal containers or flat racks. The ship includes means for conveying the intermodal containers or flat racks between stowed positions inside the cargo hold section and positions outside the ship such as a quay or cargo terminal facilities.

The cargo hold section may include one or more of:

- one or more cargo holds,

- one or more cargo hold hatch covers. One or more of the hatch covers may be thermally insulated,

- a plurality of cell guides extending essentially vertical within, or inside, the cargo hold section,

- container or platform deck stoppers arranged in the cell guides and configured for maintaining the at least one platform deck in a certain height within the cell guides and above a bottom face of the cargo hold section,

- thermal insulation surrounding one or more cargo holds of the cargo hold section, and

- means for cooling one or more cargo holds of the cargo hold section.

According to a second aspect, the present invention relates to a cargo hold or a cargo hold section.

According to a third aspect, the present invention relates to a ship including an insulated reefer hold section, where the ship is configured for handling cargo in ports or harbours without exposing the inside of the cargo hold or any cargo stowed inside the reefer hold to weather such as rain or snowfall or extreme sun.

According to a fourth aspect, the present invention relates to a ship including a cargo hold section comprising cargo handling means configured to deliver or retrieve cargo to or from a quay or a cargo terminal facility without exposing the cargo to weather such as rain or snowfall or extreme sun.

The expression "refrigeration" is throughout this specification intended to de- note a process or a condition wherein the temperature of a space or an item is controlled. The expression as such therefore also denotes only limited cooling, possibly to a level of only 1 °C or similar below the space or the items uncooled temperature. The expression "refrigeration" may in the context of this specification therefore not be taken to denote freezing or deep-freezing only.

The expression "cell guide" is throughout this specification intended to denote a relatively strong vertical structure, preferably constructed of metal, installed into a ship's cargo hold. The cell guides guide containers and flat racks verti- cally into well-defined rows, or cells, during the loading process and provide some support for the cargo against any rolling of the ship.

The expression "weather deck" is throughout this specification intended to denote any deck exposed to the outside, i.e. a weather deck within the mean- ing of this specification forms an upwardly oriented closure of a ship's hull.

The expression "main deck" is throughout this specification intended to denote a deck extending between the forward and after ends of a ship. The main deck may constitute the highest water tight deck of the ship, which may also be denoted "upper deck" or in designs wherein the main deck is exposed to weather, the main deck may be denoted as "weather deck". The expression "aft", "after" or "rear" is throughout this specification intended to denote a portion of a ship lying behind the middle portion of the ship.

The expression "fwd" or "forward" is throughout this specification intended to denote a portion of a ship lying in front of the middle portion of the ship.

Background

Perishable cargoes such as bananas and the like are often transported over substantial distances primarily by ships. The perishable cargo is packed in boxes and stowed on pallets stored on board a ship, either in refrigerated containers or directly on decks of dedicated reefer ships having cargo compartments configured for accurate climatic control of conditions within the space accommodating the cargo.

European Patent No. 10 35 998 B (NIELSEN) discloses a refrigerated cargo ship comprising an insulated refrigerated cargo hold section arranged essentially amidships. The ship according to the disclosure is configured for accommodating a second cargo in the form of containers. The containers are stowed vertically in cargo holds arranged aft and forward of the refrigerated cargo hold section. The refrigerated cargo hold section according to EP 10 35 998 B is configured for accommodating perishable cargoes such as bananas and the like under favourable conditions and the refrigerated cargo hold section is not configured for accommodation of containers.

A refrigerated cargo ship according to the said European Patent No. 10 35 998 B is today considered state of the art within the area of reefer ship design. This primarily is due to the facts that the design on one hand allows for excellent climatic control inside the section configured for accommodating the perishable cargo, and on the other hand because the design allows for carriage of a large number of containers, refrigerated or not, with or without simultaneous carriage of reefer cargo and/or water ballast. A refrigerated cargo ship having a dedicated refrigerated cargo hold section is considered a highly advanced and expensive ship, the construction of which is justified only by the mere fact that refrigerated containers as well as prior art container holds provide only limited ability to maintain optimum car- riage conditions for sensitive cargoes such as bananas and the like.

Controlling the climatic conditions within a cargo space accommodating e.g. bananas is vital as the time allotted for transit of the cargo is utilized for controlled ripening of the perishable cargoes. The ripening process of some car- goes begins already during inland transport and continues while the cargo is underway by ship. Therefore, precise tuning and control of the carriage conditions together with the arrival time of the ship is very important for the sensitive logistic in perishable goods transport. As precise control of carriage conditions inside refrigerated containers for various reasons is difficult, transport of sensitive perishable cargo preferably is performed in dedicated refrigerated cargo hold sections of refrigerated cargo ships or "reefer ships". Up to today, cargo holds of cargo ships comprising cargo holds accessed via large upwardly facing access hatches have exposed the interior of the cargo holds, and thereby also any cargo stowed in the cargo hold, to weather such as sun and rain when the hatch covers are removed from the hold or hatch coaming in order to gain access to the cargo. This of course is considered a severe drawback as some cargo, such as reefer cargo, often is damaged by the weather during cargo handling.

Furthermore cargo ships carrying craning means such as container cranes and the like for loading and unloading cargo today allow its delicate and ex- pensive cargo handling equipment to be exposed to the harsh maritime environment as the equipment typically is arranged on deck outside any enclosure. The exposure shortens operational life of the equipment while significantly increase cost of maintenance as well as downtime. It is an object of the present invention to set forth a ship meeting the aspects according to the preamble of this specification wherein the cargo handling can take place easily in unfavourable weather condition like sunshine or rain and snow fall.

It is also an object of the present invention to set forth a ship configured for high-speed cargo handling. It is a further object of the present invention to set forth a ship configured to protect its cargo handling gear from the environment.

Brief description of the invention According to the present invention, the above objects are met by the provision of a ship according to the introductory part of this specification wherein the superstructure of the ship is disposed above the upwardly oriented access hatches and/or coamings of the cargo holds and wherein the superstructure is arranged to provide shelter for the subjacent cargo holds.

A ship configured according to the above is beneficial over known designs in that:

- The design allows a ship owner or operator to obtain greater earnings per voyage as costly port time will not be affected by adverse weather conditions.

- The design will provide faster "turnaround" times in harbour as the ship will be able move the cargo in or out of the ship, in all weather conditions, at higher rates than ships provided with conventional cargo handling equipment.

- The design shelters the sensitive cargo handling equipment and

thereby prolongs service life of the equipment as well as reduces maintenance costs on the equipment. The cargo handling between the quay and the final carriage position on board the ship, or inside the cargo hold, may be performed by one or more overhead cranes arranged underneath the superstructure or underneath the accommodation.

The free gap or free distance in-between the upwardly oriented access hatches and the lower face of the superstructure shall be chosen such that cargo including movable portions of the hoisting and lowering means may move freely in a transverse direction below the superstructure and above the access hatches or hatch coamings of the subjacent cargo holds. Typically the distance will be in the range of 3.5 to 6 meters.

According to one embodiment, the cargo hold section may constitute a central cargo hold section interposed in-between a rear cargo hold section and a forward cargo hold section. Further, the cargo hold sections may be separated by transversely extending bulkheads. By this, optimum disposal or arrangement of the superstructure and/or accommodation quarters is obtained. Furthermore, central arrangement of the cargo hold may result in optimum weight distribution of the cargo.

According to one embodiment, the rear cargo hold section and forward cargo hold section may constitute container holds.

According to one embodiment, the superstructure may constitute the ac- commodation quarters or the navigating bridge of the ship. Furthermore, the navigating bridge may be arranged above the accommodation quarters.

According to one embodiment, the length of the cargo hold section, central or not, may make up between 10% and 50%, or 60% of the length of the hull. Alternatively, the length of the cargo hold section may up between 5% and 60%, or between 20% and 45%, of the length of the hull. According to one embodiment, the cargo hold section may constitute a forward, rear or centrally disposed cargo hold section.

According to one embodiment, the cargo hold section may include cell guides. The cell guides may be configured to define vertical cargo cells within the cargo hold section.

According to one embodiment, the superstructure at least partially may define an upwards enclosure of one or more cargo handling or cargo convey- ance spaces above the upwardly oriented access hatches of the cargo hold section. The one or more cargo conveyance spaces are configured for accommodation, or allowing, transverse and/or longitudinal conveyance of cargo above the upwardly oriented access hatches and below the superstructure.

According to one embodiment, the means for conveying the intermodal containers or flat racks inter alia may constitute one or more trolleys or overhead cranes. The crane unit may be configured to move transversely and/or longitudinally, along overhead rails or beams. The overhead rails or beams may be configured to be moved from one cargo hold to another cargo hold whereby procurement costs are saved.

According to one embodiment, the one or more crane rails may be configured to extend through one or more openings arranged in the side shell of the ship. By this, the crane is allowed to convey cargo from outside the ship.

According to one embodiment, the one or more rails may be configured to be pivot able or retractable. This will allow the one or more rails to selectively extend through the openings in the side of the ship.

According to one embodiment, an outer part of the one or more rails may be connected to an inner face of a hatch or door configured to provide at least partial closure of a cargo handling or cargo conveyance space above the upwardly oriented access hatches.

According to one embodiment, the means for conveying the intermodal con- tainers or flat racks further may include a spreader.

The present invention is not any way limited to the chosen configuration of the craning means. According to one embodiment, the cargo conveyance space may be closable by means of one or more hatches or doors and the doors may, when closed, form part or the shipside.

According to one embodiment, the one or more hatches or doors may be configured to, when open, provide shelter for on-quay cargo handling. This may be obtained by configuring the hatches or doors to assume an essentially horizontal orientation and to extend transversely from the ships side above the on-quay cargo handling zone. According to one embodiment, the cargo hold section may be refrigerated and thermally insulated.

Brief description of the drawings Figure 1 is a side view of a ship according to an aspect of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a transversal sectional view though a ship according to an aspect of the present invention.

Detailed description with reference to the figures In the below, an arbitrary embodiment of a ship according to an aspect of the present invention is described. The ship is described in general terms as it considered that the person skilled in the art of shipbuilding is enabled to take the teachings of this specification and proceed to produce a detailed design of a ship enjoying the advantages of the present invention without exercising inventive skills.

As shown in figure 1 , the present invention may take the form of a ship 1 including three cargo hold sections 300, 20 and 400. Other not shown em- bodiments of the present invention may include only one, two or even four or five cargo hold sections.

The front part of the ship 1 according to the depicted embodiment includes the forward cargo hold section 400. The forward cargo hold section 400 may be configured for accommodating a cargo in the form of containers. The forward cargo hold section 400 is defined inter alia by the hull 5 and the weather deck 402 where the weather deck 402 is provided at a first height above a baseline 6 of the ship. The forward cargo hold section 400 may include access hatches or openings configured to provide access to the cargo hold of the cargo hold section.

The rear part of the ship 1 includes the rear cargo hold section 300. The rear cargo hold section 300 may be configured for accommodating a cargo in the form of containers. The rear cargo hold section is defined inter alia by the hull 5 and the weather deck 302 where the weather deck 302 is provided at a second height above the baseline 6 of the ship. The rear cargo hold section 300 may include access hatches or openings configured to provide access to the cargo holds of the cargo hold section. The rear part of the ship 1 also may include propulsive machinery etc.

The central part of said ship 1 includes the central cargo hold section 20. As shown in figure 1 , the central cargo hold section 20 may be arranged sub- stantially symmetrically amidships of the ship 1 and the central cargo hold section 20 may be defined inter alia by a weather deck 40 and the hull 5. The weather deck 40 may be disposed at a third height, which may be different from the first, and/or second heights of the weather decks 302 and 402 of the forward and rear cargo hold sections 400, 300.

According to one embodiment, the third height may be at least 5% higher than the heights of any of the first and second heights. Any one or more of the cargo holds or the hold sections 20, 300 and 400 may be embodied as open top cargo hold, i.e. the cargo holds of the cargo hold sections 20, 300 and 400 may be arranged without hatch covers, much like "open top" container ships. The cargo holds may, however, also be provided with hatch covers such as pontoon type hatch covers and the like.

The cargo holds of the cargo hold sections 20, 300 and 400 may, as shown in figure 2, be provided with cell guides 21 configured for guiding containers in vertical cargo cells inter alia defined by the cell guides 21 . The cell guides 21 may be provided with not shown stoppers configured for reducing the stack load for or on the lowermost containers.

Moreover, the main deck 7, as well as the weather decks 302, 40 and 402 may be arranged at different levels above the base line 6 of the ship 1 . The central cargo hold section 20 preferably constitutes at least 15 % of the overall length of the ship 1 .

In certain embodiments, and possibly according to requirements of rules and regulations relating to the intact and damage stability of the ship, it may be necessary to arrange watertight transverse and/or longitudinal bulkheads dividing one or more of the cargo holds or cargo hold sections. The central cargo hold section 20 may be delimited directly or indirectly by means of transverse walls or bulkheads 301 , 401 .

The cargo hold section 20 may constitute a refrigerated cargo hold section. In embodiments wherein the cargo hold section 20 constitutes a refrigerated cargo hold section, it may be preferred to close upwardly oriented hatches by thermally insulated hatch covers. It is considered that it will lie within the capabilities of an ordinary person skilled in the art of shipbuilding to take the teachings of this disclosure and proceed to prepare detailed design material.

The application and combination of features and solutions presented by the present invention is not limited to the presented embodiments. One or more features of one embodiment can and may be combined with one or more features of other embodiments, whereby not described but valid, embodiments of the present invention may be obtained.

The term "comprises/comprising/comprised of when used in this specification incl. claims is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

Claims

Claims:

1 . A ship (1 ) including a hull (5), a superstructure (31 ) and a cargo hold section (20) provided with upwardly oriented access hatches (25), said cargo hold section (20) is configured for accommodating intermodal containers or flat racks (200) and said cargo hold section (20) includes hoisting and lowering means (100) configured for moving or conveying said intermodal containers or flat racks (200) between stowed positions inside said cargo hold section (20) and positions (3) outside said ship (1 ) characterized in that said superstructure (31 ) is disposed above said upwardly oriented access hatches (25) and in that said superstructure (31 ) is arranged to provide shelter for subjacent cargo holds.

2. A ship according to claim 1 , wherein said cargo hold section (20) constitute a central cargo hold section (20) interposed in-between a rear cargo hold section (300) and a forward cargo hold section (400) and wherein said cargo hold sections (20), (300), (400) are separated by transversely extending bulkheads (301 ), (401 ).

3. A ship according to claim 2, wherein one or both of said rear cargo hold section (300) and said forward cargo hold section (400) constitute container holds.

4. A ship according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said superstructure (31 ) constitutes said ships (1 ) accommodation quarters.

5. A ship according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said cargo hold section (20) is disposed essentially in a central part of said ship (1 ) and wherein the length of said cargo hold section (20) make up between 10% and 50%, or 60%, of the length of said hull (5).

6. A ship according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said cargo hold section (20) includes cell guides (21 ) defining vertical cargo cells within said cargo hold section (20).

7. A ship according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said superstructure (31 ) at least partially defines one or more cargo handling or cargo conveyance spaces (35) above said upwardly oriented access hatches (25) and wherein said one or more cargo conveyance spaces (35) are configured for allowing transverse and/or longitudinal conveyance of cargo above said upwardly oriented access hatches (25) and below said superstructure (31 ).

8. A ship according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said means (100) for conveying said intermodal containers or flat racks (200) inter alia constitute one or more trolleys or overhead cranes (100).

9. A ship according to claim 8, wherein said means (100) for conveying said intermodal containers or flat racks (200) further includes one or more rails (101 ) disposed below said superstructure (31 ) and wherein said one or more rails (101 ) extend essentially transverses to a longitudinal axis of said ship

(1 )-

10. A ship according to claim 9, wherein said one or more rails (101 ) may be configured to extend through one or more openings (37) arranged in the side shell (2) of said ship (1 ).

1 1 . A ship according to claim 10, wherein said one or more rails (101 ) may be configured to be pivot able or retractable to allow said one or more rails (101 ) to selectively extend through said openings (37).

12. A ship according to any one or more of the claims 9 - 1 1 , wherein an outer part (102) of said one or more rails (101 ) is connected to an inner face of a hatch or door (36) configured to provide closure of a cargo handling or cargo conveyance space (35) above said upwardly oriented access hatches (25).

13. A ship according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said cargo conveyance space (35) is closable by means of one or more hatches or doors (36).

14. A ship according to claim 13, wherein said one or more hatches or doors (36) constitute one or more side doors configured to, when closed, form part or the vertical shipside (2).

15. A ship according to claim 13 or 14, wherein said one or more hatches or doors (36) are configured to, when open, provide shelter for on-quay cargo handling by configuring said hatches or doors (36) to assume an essentially horizontal orientation and to extend transversely from said ship (1 ) above an on-quay cargo handling zone (3).

16. A ship according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said cargo hold section (20) is refrigerated and thermally insulated.

17. A ship according to any one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said cargo hold section (20) is configured for accommodating palletized reefer cargo stowed on flat racks.