“To Team Solarboat Delft, changing our name to Imtech Solarboat Delft is a major step in our existence. With Imtech as our main sponsor we can begin with truly fulfilling our goals. With this co-operation, we hope to sail a successful Frisian Solar Challenge. Naturally, we aim to win it!”

The Frisian Solar Challenge has grown over two editions to be the largest durable event in The Netherlands. This race, with young contestants from all across the globe, takes place following the traditional “Eleven Cities” route.
Starting July 4th, the solar-powered boats sail past the eleven Frisian cities in six days. The contest features three divisions, the highest of which being the one Imtech Solarboat Delft participates in. Just as the Imtech Marine & Offshore management did, you can support the students by sponosoring one or more solar cells via imtechsolarboatdelft.nl

By sponsoring Team Solarboat Delft, Imtech invests in a new generation of technicians & engineers. Additionally, the sponsorship neatly fits into Imtech’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy, which Imtech actively follows. Imtech CEO René van der Bruggen:

“CSR continuously seeps into our society. As frontrunner in the technical servicing sector Imtech assumes an exemplary position. CSR, to Imtech, is more than just a passing fashion. These past few years, we have seriously addressed the issue of how to leverage our strong market-position to create a durable society. Imtech is a pragmatic company; from this angle we constantly develop a wide array of activities. At the same time, Imtech does more legally required. Our innovative technological solutions largely contribute to a durable society. Imtech Marine Group, Imtech’s maritime division, supplies “green” technology on board ships. Recent “green” projects include Rainbow Warrior III and PlanetSolar.”

Business profile Imtech Marine Group
Imtech Marine Group is an independent group of well established and renowned Imtech companies who have joined forces and cooperate to offer the marine industry a wide range of technical solutions. Imtech Marine Group’s mission is to be the sustainable, reliable, global and technical partner for professionals in the marine industry. The group offers tailor made, innovative solutions (systems and services) in automation, nav/com, HVAC (heating, ventilation & air condition), fire protection, energy and AV entertainment. The Imtech Marine Group includes renowned companies like Imtech Marine Germany, Imtech Marine & Offshore, Imtech Schiffbau-/Dockbautechnik, Radio Holland Group, Royal Dirkzwager and Van Berge Henegouwen Installaties, and is employer to 2.500 people.
In 2010, Imtech celebrates her 150th anniversary.

Frank Soonieus

will be appointed General Manager of Free Technics BV. He will take the place of Wim van Rij who will enjoy his well-earned retirement.
Frank will lead Free Technics, together with Peter Weijers, in a time where FT NavVision will play a vital role in Imtech Marine Group’s automation solutions. Frank will focus on the commercial aspects of the company, whereas Peter will lead the technical staff.

In the past few years, Frank has worked as Proposal & Sales Manager for Imtech’s Naval, Specials & Offshore Business Unit. He has a wide experience with automation systems as well as sales, while at the same time building a sizable network within the market.

Wim van Rij

Wim van Rij founded Free Technics in his own backyard, selling GPS receivers at first. Under his lead, Free Technics ventured into the field of maritime automation with the development of FT NavVision, which quickly became the company’s flagship product. This course, set out by Wim van Rij, allowed Free Technics to achieve continued growth and ultimately resulted in the acquirement by Imtech in 2007.

We wish both Frank Soonieus & Wim van Rij the best of luck in their new situations.

Layout Viewer Example

The innovation

FT NavVision®’s Layout Viewer received a major upgrade. It already was a unique tool among the variety of possibilities offered by alarm and monitoring systems, but now with its new features our Layout Viewer is truly unsurpassed.
One new feature is the ability to easily create virtually every mimic imaginable without any need for an extensive knowledge of programming. All mimics can fully utilise dynamic representations of your data.
When creating a mimic, the client, importer or installer has full disposal of a large symbol-database. These symbols naturally include pumps, valves, switches, lights and various other symbols, a large number of which are animated.

New possibilities

In the past, you could have seven mimics with non-transparent BMP-images; now you can choose between 5, 10, 20 or 30 mimics which you can design yourself. As mentioned above, Free Technics possesses a great deal of experience in both graphics and user interface. You can have us design and create your mimics to be sure you have the best mimics possible.

Animated imagery

An animated image can be a switch, pump, valve: anything you want displayed in animation. These animations can easily be connected to any equipment you wish the animation to represent. By doing so, a clear representation of e.g. RPM is created. In case of conduits, the direction and speed of flow can be represented by using similar animations.
A different matter is the representation of fire- and hatch alarms. A clear view of what is actually going on is given by using wll thought-out graphical symbols that are universally recognizable. Navigation lights and the likes are represented in such a way that there can be no doubt about their current state.

Layout Viewer Example

Mimics

Each mimic can contain electrical schematics with components like generators and switches and the likes, as well as values like current, frequency, flows or overloads detected in the system; all is displayed in the user-friendly manner you are used from Free Technics. Because of the Layout Viewer’s simplicity it is no longer a tedious task to create customer-specific combinations in your mimics.
All images used can be linked to FT NavVision®’s functionality and alarms. This means that by simply clicking on the mouse any icon, switch, pump or any other symbol can be linked to any function of the FT NavVision® system.

Controls

Using the existing control-functions of FT NavVision® and combining them with the mimics of the Layout Viewer, you are able to use logical switches in each mimic. These can either be advanced, logical switches and/or alarm functions, but also joystick-like functionality. In fact: any control function imaginable can be realised.

Ballast- & tank functionality

In addition to all mentioned earlier, you are able to incorporate a ballast or fuel system in one or multiple mimics. An example of a completely feasible mimic is one where all conduits, valves, pumps, switches, tank-levels and flowspeeds are shown. The logical connections are taken care of by FT NavVision®, PLC or a combination of the two.

Dependency

The new Layout Viewer is designed in such a way you no longer need engineers knowledgeable in software programming. Of course some technical knowledge and experience is desired to create a accurate representation. However, you most definitely do not have to be a software specialist to create mimics that accurately represent the systems on your vessel.

L-CAT Landing Catamaran

Free Technics recently delivered the first of a series of Catamarans developed for the French Navy. A custom-made catamaran design capable of transporting e.g. two tanks over water at high speed, and dropping them at the beach. Like the landing doors, the deck can dynamically move, and can also operate when submerged. This gives the vessel unique anbd surprising capabilities, other than the high-speed transport of armored vehicles and troops. The difficulty of the moving deck is that, on lowering the deck, the differences between the multiple measuring points may only be of the smallest amounts.

These measuring points are distributed to FT NavVision® using a WAGO PLC and its inputs. The FT NavVision® system, through Wago, takes care of the processing of the measured data and controls of the hydraulics, but also for the display & status of the deck and landing doors. Furthermore, each hull is fitted with two MTU engines and a generator, all monitored by FT NavVision®. Each hull is independent of the other and can operate on its own.
In close co-operation with Pochon Professionel, we created an installation that takes care of the alarm-management and control over the engine room. Also, all fire-, bilge- and door-alarms, as well as any engine- and generator-alarms are displayed.

Helm L-CAT, showing FT NavVision boot-screen

Next to these vital tasks, the moving deck is also monitored and controlled using FT NavVision® and Wago PLC’s, while its current status is displayed on screen using dynamic imagery. To this end, we created additional images that give a clear and concise view of the deck’s movement and status. Concerning engines and generators, we developed 6 dedicated viewers next to the general viewers in order to be able to monitor each generator and engine in great detail, real time.

The system has been delivered under classification by Bureau Veritas, and also approved on board by the same society. All alarms are processed according to the rules set in the “Unmanned Engine Room” brief, and distributed to the multiple alarmstations fitted in the various huts on board. The vessel has been sailing quite a while already, and both importer and client are pleased with the final outcome of the project based on FT NavVision®.