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The year 2016 was a landmark year in the history of Ibercisa Deck Machinery, with the delivery of machinery for a project for the Brazilian multinational Vale do Rio Doce. The mining company was building a new cargo terminal in San Luis Maranhao (Brazil), and Ibercisa supplied the mooring system made up of 26 winches and 50 fairleads; all the equipment being exclusively designed for this project. In light of their good performance, Vale do Rio Doce has decided to renew the equipment for South Pier IV and has once again chosen Ibercisa Deck Machinery. This new project will allow the mining company to considerably increase its billing, thanks to improved mooring security and reliability for the Valemax vessels. The equipment supplied will be the same as for the first order, which speaks for itself in terms of good results: the challenge on this occasion being the installation, as South Pier IV must remain open throughout.

Some years back, the mining company Vale do Rio Doce designed an ambitious expansion project which included splitting the railway line from the mine to  the port and the widening of its dock terminal. In 2016 North Pier IV  began to function and Ibercisa supplied the mooring equipment. Now Vale has initiated the renovation of equipment for South Pier IV, and once again chosen Ibercisa for the task.

The North and South IV Pier cargo terminals are situated in Sao Luis do Maranhao (Brazil) in an environment where mooring conditions are extreme as they are exposed to strong currents, winds and tides of up to six metres. Operations must be precise, both on the part of the pilots and on the mooring equipment, as the Valemax class vessels are over 400 metres in length and with a cargo capacity of up to 360,000 tons of iron ore.

Therefore the reliability of the mooring systems must be total and Ibercisa Deck Machinery has already shown, with its supply to North Pier IV, that it can comply with the necessary requirements by repeating the order which substitutes the  equipment presently installed on

South Pier IV.  A total of 26 hydraulically driven winches, each with its own hydraulic unit and control panel so that they can be operated either by remote control from a central command post, or locally, in situations where communication is lost. This order includes local remote control  which allows the operator to control the machine with improved tracking of mooring manoeuvres. The machines have a split drum with a total side  capacity of 170 metres (150m of mooring rope plus 20m of wire) and the other side of the drum is reserved for working on the first layer. The Ibercisa system achieves speeds of up to 25m per minute at high speed and 4m a minute at slow speed with a full load. The braking capacity of the machines  is 150 tons, proven by trials for the previous order at the Vigo factory, achieving up to over 180 tons.

Regarding the previous order, the mooring system destined for South Pier IV includes a few modifications. Some changes have been made to the HPU and on the hydraulic unit to improve operation, and on the fairleads to give a better operating angle and improve working capacities. However, the biggest challenge on this occasion is provided by the installation of the winch in the port; the positioning areas are protected by a roof, which gives special protection to the workers and will not be removed, as the port must remain operative during the installation of the new machinery, further complicating the process. In order to install the equipment, the base of the winches has been modified so they may be more easily manoeuvred laterally during installation, and clearing the "dolphins" into which they must be fixed, from the roof.

One other characteristic which should be mentioned is the line tension measuring system. Each machine will be given electric charge cells connected to the frame, thereby achieving instant and precise readings, allowing the operator to foresee any contingency. On the previous winches, measurements with differences of under 2% were registered in respect of the dynamometer, measured on the test bench in the range of 0-180 tons, both in dynamic traction situations as well as on braking.

The fairleads are designed by Ibercisa to the specific requirements of Vale. This model consisting of four rollers is able to support outflow angles of over 90º with tension levels of over 180 tons, and has sufficient room to allow for circulation of mooring links of 80 tons of SWL.

The electrical installation will be carried out by the Company Milplan and controls by the company TSA. The Dutch company Mampey with whom the Company has collaborated on the previous project, will be supplying the hooks. The collaboration of these two companies has arisen in this second project  and who, after conscientious analysis, presented a project to Vale to resolve the security and operational difficulties which existed on the South Pier.