News

How can innovative logistics concepts for increased inland and coastal shipping be developed? This has been in focus for the recently completed research project InLog, a collaborative project between SSPA and the University of Gothenburg, with industrial participation from Avatar Logistics and Seadvise.

- To accelerate the desirable modal shift from land to sea transport, we need to look beyond today's limitations in business models, regulations, freight flow, and ship concepts, says Vendela Santén,  project manager at SSPA. Among other things, a concept for an electric container vessel has been developed within the framework of this project.

SSPA has signed a framework agreement with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and the Swedish Armed Forces. This agreement, Marine Platforms - Amphibious Systems, covers consulting support within ship technical competencies. It includes, among other things, investigations and technical documentation, implementation of investigations, design documentation, delivery inspections and system work. The agreement is valid for three years, from the turn of the year in 2021, with the possibility of an extension for another four years.

- At SSPA we are of course very proud of this renewed trust from FMV and the Swedish Armed Forces, says Stefan Eliasson, CEO of SSPA Sweden AB.

In the research project AKTSAM (Actor collaboration to realise modal shift of freight transport), financed by the Swedish Energy Agency, SSPA’s Sustainable Maritime Logistics team together with Linköping University have set out to explain how actor collaboration can facilitate increased use of rail and sea freight transport.

SSPA’s Sustainable Maritime Logistics team has long experience in modal shift research including the perspective of transport-buying companies, actor collaboration, increased use of sea transportation, and also inland and urban waterway transportation. In the AKTSAM research project both transport providers and companies sending and receiving goods have been interviewed and specific relationships studied in-depth.

A research collaboration between SSPA and Chalmers University of Technology aims at increasing transport efficiency, by understanding how empty container positioning can be reduced and made more efficient.

Recently, the research project wPCC (wind Powered Car Carrier) tested the concept Oceanbird with focus on the ship’s ability to manoeuvre and sail in waves. SSPA’s experts performed extensive model tests with a five-metre long ship model in the Maritime Dynamics Laboratory (MDL). Powered by wind, it is important that the vessel will perform well at the windy sea. The team wanted to verify that the model sails well without assistance from propellers, especially in more difficult conditions, for example larger waves, following waves and head seas. Since this was the first time a ship of this kind was tested in the basin, our experts had to develop the test techniques as well. 

Currently, much research is focused on the possibility to use wind propulsion to reduce the green-house gas emissions from shipping. Two master thesis projects in this field are jointly supervised by both Chalmers University of Technology and SSPA. “Investigation on a harvesting propeller for wind propelled vessels” and “CFD investigation of wind powered ships under extreme condition”. 

Oceanbird was recently presented and received worldwide attention. Together, Wallenius Marine, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and SSPA contribute with considerable resources and expertise to create new knowledge and understandings of vessel design incorporating wind propulsion. The research project is called wPCC (wind Powered Car Carrier), and in September 2020 the collaboration presented the concept Oceanbird. Wallenius Marine, owns the concept and SSPA and KTH are research partners.

In a project to modernize and rebuild patrol crafts to underwater surveillance crafts, SSPA is supporting FMV (Swedish Defence Materiel Administration) with technical expertise and ILS management. The goal of the project is to boost the littoral ASW (Anti-submarine warfare) capabilities of the Swedish Navy. Because of a very tight schedule, the rebuild is carried out at three different shipyards simultaneously. The fifth of six vessels was delivered to FMV on the 1st of July 2020. SSPA has been involved since the design phase and is presently verifying the work of the shipyards on hull, machinery and auxiliary systems, and providing technical advice to FMV. 

SSPA has developed techniques for analysis of ship hull structural dynamics over several years, i.e. analysis of the structural response due to wind and wave loads. In an article published in the International publication Ship & Offshore, issue 4/2020, our experts describe how we decided to share this information and join forces with our partners Stena, Chalmers University of Technology and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) to develop knowledge.

Today there are no inland waterway vessels operating in Sweden. Current limited traffic consists only of IMO vessels. Using the inland waterways (IWW) to a larger extent would create positive benefits according to authorities, goods owners, shipping companies, ports and freight forwarders. How can SSPA develop an innovative logistic concept for coastal and inland shipping in Sweden? Is it possible to look beyond current limitations in existing business models, legislation, goods flow characteristics and vessel concepts? SSPA’s experts and researchers studied this in one of the research projects and has now developed a business concept with an emission free vessel, electrified, operating between the coastal port and a nearby inland port with high frequency. Read the full report: Battery electric inland waterway vessel.

Recently, SSPA’s experts in seakeeping and ship performance in waves presented a new paper at an international conference, held by RINA (the Royal Institution of Naval Architects). A concise version of the presented paper and the results is available for download. The introduction of EEDI (the Energy Efficiency Design Index) almost a decade ago, slow steaming and the wish to reduce bunkering costs have resulted in a trend to install less powerful engines in ships. To avoid vessels becoming underpowered and unsafe, IMO (the International Maritime Organization) published an interim guideline. SSPA used the KVLCC2 tanker as a case study and followed the guideline step by step to find the minimum engine size. Our experts used a combination of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and model tests. 

Recently, the research project wPCC (wind Powered Car Carrier) entered a new phase when the new concept was tested at SSPA. The project aims to develop a sailing vessel that can transport 7,000 cars across the Atlantic, resulting in a reduction of energy consumption by approximately 90 percent. Designing and testing sailing cargo ships requires completely new calculation tools to be developed. The model tests were performed in SSPA’s Towing Tank to validate the computations. The results will be used to optimize the design of the rig, hull and appendages. The research project is led by Wallenius Marine, with the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and SSPA as partners.

We present results from our work and expertise in our company newsletter SSPA Highlights. The new issue is now ready. In this edition, several articles describe different actions that should be possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, directly or indirectly. We want to contribute with new solutions to be able to achieve a long-term sustainable and environmentally friendly society.

We present results from our work and expertise in our newsletter SSPA Highlights. We want to contribute with new solutions to be able to achieve a long-term sustainable and environmentally friendly society. Our vision is to be recognized as the most rewarding partner for innovative and sustainable maritime development. In this edition, several articles describe different actions that should be possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, directly or indirectly.

ηR is the relative rotative efficiency of a propeller that reflects the torque difference for a propeller working in the open water and in the behind conditions. It is obtained during the scaling of model test results with the standard ITTC-78 method. A research article, published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (JSME), presents our new findings and a thorough explanation about the cause of low ηR-value for the low blade area propellers. Model testing and a RANS method with a transition model were used in this work to study the near-wall flow characteristics in open water and behind conditions for three different propeller designs.

If you are enrolled at a Swedish technical university and would like to carry out your Master Thesis project at SSPA, please send us an application before 15 December, using the provided form. Note that you will not be an employee during the thesis work. 

We are looking for two students (one thesis) in the area of Maritime Management (or other relevant programmes) to take part in tasks related to ongoing research. The purpose of the master thesis is to explore the crew’s perspective on wind powered cargo vessels and the sailing operations. Interesting questions to raise are: What are operational effects from applying different wind powered technologies? What expectations and requirements have the crew on the operations? What operational performance is expected? How could the operational performance be measured?

The Swedish maritime industry joins forces to put together the best trainee programme for newly graduated master’s students. The trainee programme involves different actors in the Swedish maritime industry; shipowners, shipyards and manufacturers, classification societies, authorities, designers and more. The application for 2020/2021 opens 15 December 2019 and close 31 January 2020.

Increasing the share of goods transported by sea has received increasing political interest in Sweden in order to achieve sustainable transports. The benefits of moving goods from land to sea transport are for example less congestion, reduced environmental impact, lower cost for companies sending and receiving goods and improved road safety. Despite this, the share of sea transport is not increasing in Sweden.

Together with Chalmers University of Technology, SSPA has completed a study testing proof of concept of SEAMAN Online™ with students. SEAMAN Online is a novel web-based ship manoeuvring training tool allowing students and professional mariners to practice manoeuvres in ports and confined waters from their personal computers.

If you are enrolled at a Swedish technical university and would like to carry out your Master Thesis project at SSPA, please send us an application before 15 November, using the provided form. Note that you will not be an employee during the thesis work. 

How can inland and coastal shipping be used to a greater extent? How can a logistics concept be designed that could be realized? What is required and in what way do different actors need to take the initiative? These questions will be discussed during a seminar in Gothenburg, Sweden on 15 October. The seminar is organised as part of Interreg North Sea region IWTS 2.0 project by SSPA in collaboration with Lighthouse. 

On September 3-4, some of our experts are visiting Sweden’s biggest shipping event. For two days, partners, customers and suppliers gather together to discuss shipping-related topics. This year, SSPA will take part in the exhibition in stand B24, presenting one new business area, ILS & Technical Information Services. We will also demonstrate SEAMAN Online™, a fully web based professional maritime manoeuvring training simulator. On stage, we will talk about the interesting topic "Sailing cargo vessels, a realistic path to achieve carbon-neutral shipping", research where SSPA is a partner.

Knowing how a vessel will behave in certain conditions can help answer many questions, for example; What is the operational window for ship-to-ship transfer?, What size and number of tugs are needed for safe berthing? Will the vessel roll heavily in the forecasted weather? In what conditions can the ship be safely moored? What engine power is required to be on schedule 98% of the time? One way to address these types of questions is to use advanced simulations. At SSPA, we have developed a toolbox, called SEAMAN Simulation, which can provide a solution for the issues above and much more.

A new research article is published in the journal Marine Policy. This paper provides an overview of how Automatic Identification System (AIS) can be used in different areas of maritime research. AIS data can be incorporated in various types of modelling approaches and play a small or large role as a source of data. AIS data can also be validated or used to validate research from other data sources. The researchers have identified and presents ten different research areas in which AIS is used today. In the future they propose making use of AIS data also in other research fields. Many stakeholders can benefit from the research in which AIS data is used.

It is not a trivial task for ship owners and shipyards to decide which coating to use or how often the surfaces should be recoated or cleaned based on cost/benefit analyses. SSPA has completed a research project with the aim to gain increased knowledge of the effect a rough surface has on skin friction. This project has also resulted in an interactive tool that can be used to estimate fuel consumption without requiring background knowledge in hydrodynamics. This tool is the “Skin Friction database”, which will hopefully contribute to better surface treatment of vessels, that in the end can reduce costs and emission of greenhouse gases from the maritime sector.

Recently transport buyers, shipping companies, forwarders and researchers attended a workshop in Sweden to discuss barriers and opportunities for shifting goods from road transport to short sea shipping within Europe, and also environmental performance of sea transport. The workshop was organised by SSPA and partners as part of a research study. A project report concluding the research project will be available in August. 

SSPA currently lead the ITTC Specialist Committee on Combined CFD/EFD Methods. CFD stands for Computations Fluid Dynamics and EFD stands for Experimental Fluid Dynamics, i.e. model testing. To facilitate the introduction of CFD/EFD Combined Methods in our community, the Committee has identified several research areas which need to be addressed. In this way, they wish to inspire researchers around the world to contribute to the development.

Transport activities can become more energy and cost efficient by improving the load factor, i.e. balancing the required and available capacity of transportation. Statistics about load factor are missing today, in particular for sea transports. There are unused opportunities to calculate load factor of ships by using innovative data collection techniques, enabled through digitalisation in terms of AIS (Automatic Identification System). SSPA’s experts has investigated how the load factor can be mapped from AIS-data and analysed the energy efficiency potential of an increased load factor in sea transports.

Knowledge-based organisations like SSPA constantly have to adapt to a changing world. At SSPA, all specialist engineers can be involved in research and development (R&D) in addition to the commercial work. This facilitates a two-way knowledge flow between research and business. The decentralised R&D-organisation does, however, require very clear management with defined goals, roadmaps and prioritisation. Our strategic research plans help us to set the direction and to break down the challenges into manageable goals.

Recently, the STM Validation Final Conference was held at the headquarter of IMO in London. The conference lasted for two days and the interest was huge. We discussed how Sea Traffic Management affects safety, efficiency and the environment as well as how the industry is looking at digitization. SSPA’s experts was represented and took part in the demonstrations of the solutions in use and the early results of Route optimisation and Normal behaviour of ships.

As of September 3rd, Mr. Joacim Linder takes on the role of Head of Maritime Consulting. He will lead about 30 experts and consultants in three teams; Hull & Propulsion, Manoeuvring & Seakeeping, and Advisory. He is also a new member of SSPA's management team. Joacim has extensive experience in the maritime industry and has recently been responsible for the RoRo Competence Centre at Cargotec, MacGregor. He has an M.Sc. in Naval Architecture from Chalmers University of Technology.

The trend of reduced sailing speed, or slow-steaming, presents shippers with new, complex challenges. SSPA has together with Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg studied how the Swedish industry has met and managed these challenges. The study has recently been published in Journal of Shipping and Trade.

Sweden and Denmark has jointly developed actions to improve the shipping traffic in Kattegat and Skagerrak to be safer and more environmentally friendly. SSPA has supported the Swedish Transport Agency with comparative consequence analyses for the proposed new routing systems. The IMO Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) has now approved the proposal for new ship routes that will be in place from July 1, 2020.

Pollution in the ocean is also about the ambient noise closely related to maritime shipping and seismic exploration by the oil/gas industry. SSPA has been involved in numerous acoustic-related projects and continually developing various predictive tools, making them available to assist customers in solving problems related to underwater-radiated noise (URN). SSPAs experts are contributing with more research in this area. In August, a new paper will be published in the well-known journal Ocean Engineering.

One of the research projects that our experts share knowledge in, is the EU-funded project EfficienSea2. Recently this project concluded the findings from three years of research of maritime digitalisation. The project has involved 32 European partners and has developed solutions such as the Maritime Connectivity Platform in order to create a more secure and seamless data exchange in the maritime world.

The GreenPilot Project final seminar, “Guiding the Way to Sustainable Shipping”, will be held 3rd May 2018 in Gothenburg, Sweden and all are welcome to attend. The seminar will include presentations of results from the project to convert a pilot boat to methanol operation, as well as presentations covering sustainable methanol production, safety and performance of methanol, and perspectives from ship operators regarding methanol operation.

There are multiple reasons for carrying out accident investigations, but the primary reason is often a need to gain a deeper understanding of the course of the events from both a human and technical perspective. From this analysis, conclusions can be made that may result in recommendations for decreasing the risk of a similar accidents occurring.

The Board of Directors at SSPA has decided to strengthen SSPA’s core business and to review the company strategy plan. As part of this process, the board has appointed Stefan Eliasson as acting CEO & President during the on-going recruitment of a new permanent CEO.

The Swedish maritime industry join forces to put together the best trainee programme for newly graduated Naval Architects. The trainee programme involves different actors in the Swedish maritime industry; shipowners, shipyards, manufacturers, classification societies, authorities and more. SSPA is one of the companies involved in this trainee programme. The application for 2018/2019 opens 15 December 2017 and close 31 January 2018.

It is a major infrastructure initiative to renew Sweden's icebreaker fleet. The Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA) has procured expertise from SSPA to support them with several investigations and the results are utilized in a prestudy. Our experts have conducted investigations and analyses within ten different areas in order to find answers of key issues and to support the decision-making process. In the prestudy, SMA concluded that the design of the first new icebreaker should begin shortly and by 2030 the five state-owned icebreakers, existing today will either be replaced or life-time extended.

If you are enrolled at a Swedish technical university and would like to carry out your master thesis project at SSPA, please send us an application before December 1, using the provided form. You can either propose your own project idea or select one of the projects that we suggest.

In early December, the trade show Marintec China will be held in Shanghai. SSPA has participated in the exhibition on a regular basis for several years and it is an opportunity for us to meet our clients and partners and to make connections with new maritime professionals. Come and meet us at the Swedish pavilion if you are visiting the trade show.

The 20th Numerical Towing Tank Symposium (NuTTS 2017) successfully ended on 3 October in Wageningen, the Netherlands. This two-day’s symposium attracts experts, researchers and young Ph.D. students all over the world to meet together to disseminate the latest results, work in progress as well as encountered challenges. Two experts from SSPA participated with their knowledge on hydrodynamics and the new tool Virtual Captive Tests (VCT).

The International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC) has an important role as a cooperation platform for all towing tank organizations. It gives SSPA, as an active member, an opportunity to influence the worldwide shipping community. At the ITTC’s 28th Full Conference, the Seakeeping Committee presented a recommended procedure for determining "f_w". The procedure is largely based on work by SSPA’s experts. After a suggestion from SSPA, the conference took the decision to start up a new Specialist Committee on Combined CFD/EFD Methods that will run at least during the next three years. The Chairman is one of SSPA’s experts.

There is a big potential in optimising the construction of ships by reducing weight and steel. Transports can become more energy efficient and reduce the environmental impact at sea. To find out more, a pre-study was conducted in 2016 and now a collaboration is established. SSPA together with Chalmers, KTH and Stena Teknik will conduct research on methods for dynamic ship dimensioning and the understanding of dynamic loads on ships will be able to enhance. During the project, a vessel model will be equipped to measure structural loads, model wave tests, and numerical calculations will be validated against model trials. Stena's concept vessel Stena Elektra is chosen as a model vessel.

Port operators are experiencing pressure to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. One option could be to implement Lean Production concepts and thereby working with continuous improvements. In a collaboration between SSPA and Chalmers University of Technology, Value Stream Mapping was applied to four different seaport container terminals of varying sizes. Several improvement areas were identified and the project provided the terminals with improvement proposals to increase their efficiency, including increasing the collaboration between actors and consider to automate certain processes in the handling of containers.

Prediction and analysis of added hydrodynamic resistance in waves is an established research topic, with several accepted methods, but the study of sail aerodynamics in waves is an open research area. The unsteady aerodynamic behavior of sails in waves can greatly influence the performance of a yacht, by providing increased driving force in some conditions, but decreased driving force in others. SSPA and Chalmers are cooperating in the Sports & Technology initiative, with several research projects in sailing. The leading journal Ocean Engineering has recently published a paper titled “CFD prediction of steady and unsteady upwind sail aerodynamics”.

The Port of Helsinki has recently published a safety manual on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunkering procedures. The safety manual has been developed by SSPA in collaboration with the Port of Helsinki and the Finnish authorities. The safety manual outlines the safety regulations and demands that are required for safe handling in LNG bunkering operations, including ship-to-ship (STS) and truck-to-ship (TTS) operations within the operating area of the Port of Helsinki. The manual details the minimum requirements for shipping companies and LNG suppliers that wish to perform LNG bunkering at the port in a clear and practical manner.

Welcome to an international seminar on the 15th June, presenting the outcome and lessons learned. In order to reach the national target of fossil free transport by 2030, emissions reduction in the transport sector needs to accelerate on a technical and operational level. Several on-going and ground breaking projects are contributing to the development of different sustainability solutions.

As of 1 June, Ph.D. Christian Finnsgård takes the role as Vice President, Head of SSPA Research. He succeeds Ph.D. Peter Grundevik who retires. Christian Finnsgård has been working as a senior researcher and project manager at SSPA since 2014, heading international and national research projects ranging from maritime logistics to sports research. 

The GreenPilot project has converted a pilot boat to methanol operation to show how a methanol conversion of a smaller vessel can be carried out in practice and to demonstrate the emissions reductions that can be achieved. The project began in March 2016 and the partners are ready to share their latest results. Project representatives will be attending the Nor-Shipping 2017 Exhibition, held May 30th to June 2nd in Oslo, to discuss the project. A project seminar will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden on June 15th, 2017. SSPA is committed to developing sustainable solutions for shipping, and we have dedicated experts who are excited to be part of this project team.

The consequences of global warming may reduce the need for icebreaking assistance in certain shipping areas, but will also open up for increased sea traffic and offshore activities in pristine Arctic areas. This situation provides opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint from maritime transport through reduced fuel consumption in sea areas such as the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, and also through favourable conditions for transoceanic short cuts in the Northern Sea Route (NSR). But it also entails considerable environmental and safety risks that must be carefully assessed and controlled. SSPA is currently engaged in a number of client assignments and inter-disciplinary research projects related to oil-spill risk assessment and safe traffic management in ice-covered waters.

Students and researchers from Chalmers Sports & Technology and SSPA, has together designed and developed an optimist dinghy with supreme capabilities. By using a composite with added graphene, the hull is made stronger. Hydrofoils are added to lift the boat, decreasing drag and allowing greater speeds. After tests performed in SSPA’s facility, the towing tank, the dinghy was ready to be tried out at sea. By this project, SSPA has increased the practical knowledge concerning the particular challenges of construction, configuration and testing of hydrofoil craft.

During the spring, several projects are performing demo tests with the goal to develop the potential of inland waterways and city logistics in Sweden. SSPA is involved in several of these projects and our experts in logistics and shipping have knowledge to share. Waterways in urban areas have unused capacity which could be used for transport of people, goods and waste. An increased use of inland waterway transport and city logistics can reduce the strain on the road network with positive environmental effects such as less noise and lower emissions.

The second Marine Renewables Infrastructure Network (MaRINET2) program has recently been launched and SSPA is a partner. The aim of the project is to facilitate research test infrastructures for actors in offshore renewable energy, free of charge. The European Commission Horizon 2020 program supports and finances the project that runs from 2017 to 2021. SSPA offers four major test facilities, Maritime Dynamics Laboratory, Towing Tank, Cavitation Tunnel and a Simulator, that are well suited for marine energy testing. 

Ice-free waterways and harbors can be desirable during a greater portion of the year than what might be possible on behalf of nature. A possibility for suppressing ice formation at such locations can be the use of air bubbler systems. SSPA has just finished a project for STA Road Ferries (Färjerederiet) for proposing and comparing different design alternatives and pipe routes for an air bubbler system intended for a ferry route close to Östersund, Sweden.

The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) has delivered updated combat boats, used in the amphibious battalion. The project includes in total 29 combat boats (CB90) that will acquire so called "lifetime extensions". Recently twelve CB90 was finalized and the remaining will be delivered during 2017. The goal is to increase the combat boats operational efficiency and technical availability. SSPA supports FMV with general technical support and expertise throughout this project.

Sea Traffic Management (STM) is an initiative to establish standardised information sharing with open interfaces. Now the STM Validation Project, which is a continuation of MONA LISA 2.0, starts to validate the Sea Traffic Management concept on 300 ships and in 13 ports, testing real-time information sharing to authorized parties in the maritime transport chain. A large part of the work relies on AIS data processed with the SSPA EGAC (enterprise GIS analytics cluster), which capacity has evolved dramatically during the last few years.

Max Salminen, a two-time Swedish Olympic sailor, aims towards the Olympic games in Tokyo 2020. To prepare himself in the best possible way, he wants to find out what rudder is the best for him and his Finn. To find out, he teamed up with Chalmers Sports & Technology and SSPAs experts in hydrodynamics and sailing to test different existing rudders. 

Chalmers, Sports & Technology and SSPA collaborates with several Swedish national team sailors and Olympic aspirants for Tokyo 2020. Some of the sailors are students at Chalmers and part of Riksidrottsuniversitet. In the Olympic classes athletes constantly strive to improve performance. To achieve this, they can either make changes on the dinghy or the way they sail. The hydrodynamic experts at SSPA performs different tests in the 260 metres long towing tank.

The development of the BB GREEN Air Supported Vessel has been ongoing for several years. Now, a demonstrator called “AiriEl” has been delivered from the shipyard in Riga to Stockholm for optimisation and sea trials. This Air Supported demo vessel utilizes electric propulsion and the aim is to reach a cruising speed of 25 knots. SSPA has been commissioned by Stockholm County Council to conduct and verify the model tests previously carried out by SSPA for the prototype. The goal is new fast ferries that enables rapid and environmentally friendly public transport in cities.

Lowering environmental impact, increasing comfort and control at sea, are effects and characteristics many ship owners and operators are searching for. The Danish shipyard Tuco Marine, in collaboration with Effect Ships International AS, Norway, has taken one step closer to these goals with an 18 metres carbon sandwich Air Supported Vessel (ASV) Soft Motion Demonstrator. The hull solutions has been tested and verified at SSPA.

The Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA) has procured SSPA to support them with technical expertise in a prestudy regarding a new fleet of icebreakers. The SMA is responsible for the Swedish icebreaking, and owns five icebreakers.

The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) has granted SSPA a framework agreement covering the supply of technical consultancy services in amphibious systems for the Swedish military.

Amphibious systems are used where water meets land and the Swedish Armed Forces are using speed boats such as combat boats, ferries and hovercrafts.

The latest issue of our company magazine, Highlights, has been published.

The maritime industry is in the middle of a paradigm shift. It’s therefore with great pleasure that we like to announce that the Finnish Maritime Cluster project (FMC) signs a cooperation agreement with Zero Vision Tool (ZVT) to widen the use of the ZVT collaboration method for a safer and more environmentally, climate and energy efficient, while still profitable, transport at sea. A unique industry driven cross-border triple helix way to move forward together.

SSPA, in collaboration with Chalmers Sports & Technology, experiments with rowing boats in the 260 meter towing tank.

This upcoming event is organized in Gothenburg on 11 March. Meet experts from SSPA that will speak about the challenges and opportunities of waterborne transport in the city.

SSPA is one of the companies involved in Lighthouse Trainee Programme. The application for 2016 close at 31 January. Interested? Read more about the application process at www.lighthouse.nu.

Developing the next generation technologies of renewable electricity.

The EU Horizon 2020 project PowerKite will design, build and deploy a power take-off system (PTO) for a novel tidal energy collector concept, the Deep Green subsea tidal kite by Minesto. The project has a budget of 5.1M Euros and gathers 9 partners from 3 countries. Over 30 months, the project will progress the state of the art in several fields: PTO modelling, electrical design, mechanical design, data acquisition, analysis and optimisation. 

The entire series of five ships have been delivered to and accepted into full service by the Swedish Armed Forces and the Royal Swedish Navy (RSwN). The Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV) have recently executed final delivery of the project. During the project SSPA has supported FMV with expertise and consultancy services in a number of technical areas.

The Final Conference on MONALISA 2.0 on 10–11 November will share the results from two years’ work with Sea Traffic Management and Safety. Presentations, demonstrations and exhibitions will bring the ideas and solutions to life.

High performances in sports are closely coupled to technology, both when it comes to new materials and motion analysis. SSPA and the Sports & Technology at Chalmers University of Technology are cooperating in one of the sports, sailing. During Volvo Ocean Race in Gothenburg, Chalmers showed an exhibition with unique optimist dinghies. This was a result from research projects where the students made the calculations needed to construct the dinghies in different materials. SSPA supported and helped building the dinghies. The Sports & Technology initiative has attracted attention from the Swedish Television that published a story, when the students launching the cellulose dinghy, “Will a boat of cellulose remain floating?” This clip was filmed at SSPAs facility Maritime Dynamics Laboratory.

On November 7, SSPA presented the paper, “Hydrodynamic Optimization of Energy Saving Devices in Full Scale”, on the 30th Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics in Hobart, Australia. The presentation was held by one of the authors, Keunjae Kim from SSPA.

SSPA Sweden proudly announces the assignment from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) to conduct risk analysis and simulations of maritime traffic with different floating bridge and submerged floating tunnel design options for “Project Bjørnafjorden”.

NPRA is investigating a gigantic infrastructure project related to the 1,100 km long “Coastal Highway Route E39”, where it will be exploring the options for replacing seven existing ferry crossings between Kristiansand and Trondheim with fixed links. The fjords are both broad and deep, which requires large investments and larger structures than anything that has previously been built in Norway.

When defined actions are conducted the participants of the Swedish-Finnish maritime suggestion “Make a Difference” will be co-financed by the EU via the Trans-European Transport Network. The estimated total cost of the work packages is € 2 494 000 of which € 1 247 000 will be granted. The organizations conducting the work are Preem, Sirius Shipping, Viking Line, DNV, FKAB, Swedish Shipowners’ Association, and SSPA.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is responsible for regulation of international shipping, in particular to prevent from marine pollution. Next area to look into is the Wider Caribbean Region (Caribbean and the surrounding coasts), how can this area adapt to the same emission requirements as other Emission Control Areas (ECA), where the Baltic Sea region is an example. On behalf of the IMO and together with White Smoke, will SSPA conduct a LNG feasibility study, which in many ways is following the same structure as the one that SSPA and ÅF conducted for the Danish Maritime Authority in the the Baltic Sea region, but in a smaller scale. The most important aspect of the work is to identify barriers and enablers.

SSPA's has been working for The Swedish Contingencies Agency in the EnSaCo Oil Spill Project, an EU InterReg IV project. The assignment has been to generate material to harmonise a GIS tool which presents the environment sensibility for oil spill along the Baltic sea costs depending on season as well as looking into the avalable response resourses. A manual has been produced for how to plan, implement and evaluate such an oil spill response in the HELCOM area. 

Canada's newly appointed Ambassador Kenneth Macartney and the Honorary Consul Per Jessing visited SSPA yesterday. The meeting had a special focus on Arctic issues and environmental impact, since it corresponds to The Arctic Council's ongoing work, where Sweden holds the Chairmanship (2011-2013).

- The experiences and knowledge of risk management in Arctic operations as well as oil spill management in ice was discussed, says Jim Sandkvist. The recent study for the Maritime Administration to use the Swedish icebreakers as essential components of an international rescue team during the summer in the Arctic, was presented, he continues.

"High efficiency air supported hulls tank tested at SSPA Sweden" Read two of the articles that was generated from the visit;

Maritimt Magasin

Green 4 Sea

See part of the towing tank test at 50 knots (90 km/h) at YouTube

Despite if you are planning, constructing or operating a vessel you will gain from talking to us. We can show you how to gain extra speed, consume less fuel and save money.

If you attend the Donsö Tanker Meet 2011,
you can meet us in booth no: 105

If you like to contact us to find out more please
call +46 31 772 90 00 or e-mail info@sspa.se