An image of OMT's SmartHatch concept presented at Euronaval 2024. (Janes/Neil Dee)
Danish maritime consulting firm Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) has unveiled its SmartHatch concept for multimission bays at the Euronaval 2024 exhibition, held in Paris from 4 to 7 November.
The system features a sliding deck and side shell hatches that open simultaneously to provide access to multimission bays on ships. The top hatches of the system can move over the starboard or port sides of the ship, or over the stern allowing them to serve as a lifting device for cargo and launch operations. The hatches are designed to integrate seamlessly into the deck when closed to reduce height requirements.
The system can be used in three distinct ways: a load and unload arrangement combining the hatch with a gantry crane to allow for loading and unloading operations in harbour, a launch and recovery version that can be used for the side launch and recovery of unmanned systems at sea, and an ‘open to the sky' version. The third variant allows normally closed decks to be opened to the sky, enabling systems such as a containerised launcher to be deployed.
Speaking to Janes following a briefing on the system by Thomas Eefsen, chief commercial officer at OMT, OMT Group CEO Kåre Groes Christiansen said the company intends to incorporate the system into their new products and offer it on ships that are larger than 100 m in length. He further said that OMT also worked with Babcock on the system and that it can be used on OMT-designed ships or on other designs.
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