Ice Breakers

LM Gould, payout display, tension instrumentation, mooring
Healy, rope tension, winch monitoring, payout display
LM Gould Local Display, anchor winch monitoring, rope tension

Rugged Controls has been involved in supporting the polar research vessels in their winch operations for many years. 

In 2012, Rugged Controls was awarded the contract to upgrade the winch systems aboard the Coast Guard Ice-Breaker vessels, the Healy and the Polar Star.  The NSF award was in direct response to the capabilities of Rugged Controls winch monitoring equipment's ability to satisfy the requirements defined in the new Research Vessel Safety Standards issued by UNOLS.

The Healy installation included multiple local and remote displays, analog sweep meters for tension and a PC data logging station running Rugged Controls WinchDAC software.  Winch parameter data is evaluated, displayed and logged at 20 Hz sample rates.

Other polar research vessels using Rugged Controls winch monitoring equipment are the Laurence M. Gould and the Nathaniel B. Palmer.

Multi winch displays were used on both vessels to minimize equipment expense and allow operators to fit the units into confined winch house spaces. Winch selector switches were used by operators to determine the active winch, automatically loading the correct calibration coefficients into the display.

Vessels Upgraded:

  • R/V LM Gould
  • R/V Palmer
  • R/V Healy
  • R/V Polar Star
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About Us

Rugged Controls is an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer of rugged programmable controllers, sensors, instrumentation, controls and automation equipment used in industries ranging from oil & gas, industrial, oceanographic to mining to construction. Our brand of multivariable controllers is continually selected in mission-critical applications where rugged durability, viewability, accuracy and data acquisition is required.

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