After the highly successful introduction of its Scorpion model for benthic trawling, Injector is widening its product range with a number of benthic, midwater and semi-pelagic trawl doors. According to managing director Jan-Allan Müller, the success of the Injector Scorpion has helped the company put renewed efforts into research and development to boost its offerings further.
Mr Müller said that the Stealth F-9 and Stealth F-15, both introduced last year to pelagic fishing vessels, have proved to be a major success as these doors are reported to outperform anything else. With the Stealth F-15 concept of a steel cover over a lightweight door, it seems that Injector has made a breakthrough in getting closer to the ultimate design.
As reports are coming from Faroese skippers on the excellent handling and performance of the Stealth doors, Irish trawler Father McKee is still showing a 5 to 6-percent increase in efficiency after having replaced conventional 15m2 doors with 13m2 F-15s. Skipper Michael Cavanagh reports getting a spread of between 85 and 91 fathoms between the doors in rough weather and strong currents, during which the doors also shot away and stayed stable when taking a turn.
Scottish pelagic vessels Chris Andra and Antares have also been able to go down in door size from 14m2 and 13.5m2, respectively, to 12 m2 and report similar improvements in efficiency.
Among the latest addition to Injectors range of trawl doors: the X 10 semi-pelagic design, which according to Injector has set a new record with the highest coefficient lift/continuous drag values of any such product on the market. The first full-scale pair of X 10 doors is currently at the beginning of a long process of testing at sea under real conditions that follows the already long design process. In late May this year when Faroese shrimp trawler Arctic Viking sails for Greenland fishing grounds, the prototype X 10 will be on the deck.
Designed primarily for shrimp trawlers as doors capable of spreading shrimp gear on a variety of grounds at relatively low towing speeds, the X 10 design is intended to take out all of the ground contact that other doors need to provide part of the spreading force. The X 10 is the product of a decade of experience and the aeronautical understanding of chief designer Helgi Larsen and the design team he heads. Computer modeling shows a clean flow with remarkably little turbulence around the doors, and flume tank testing with scale models has confirmed the computer results.
The first pair of doors are on Arctic Viking now and by August we expect to have the results and to be ready to go into commercial production. The pair they have on board are almost 3m2 smaller than the 14m2 Shark doors theyve been using, but we are confident that the hydrodynamic principles and the tunnel that is a feature of our designs will perform as we expect.
Its a long test period, Mr Müller added. But we need to see four or five months of hard use across different grounds to get a realistic picture of performance and simply to be certain that the doors really are tough enough.
Mr Müller said that investing in the design team is vitally important, enabling them to keep a step or two ahead of the competition with new models, such as the X 10 doors, the F-15 Stealth pelagic doors introduced last year and the Scorpion bottom doors that have done extremely well. We have most of the bigger vessels in the Norwegian fleet using these now, and what skipper Per Odd Myklebust has said about the Remøy saving between 1500 and 2000 liters per day represents a huge saving over a whole year.
When aeronautical engineer Helgi Larsen turned his attention to fishing gear ten years ago, the result was the original Shark design that raised the bar across the board with the application of scientific principles to produce truly hydrodynamic doors.
The Scorpions have proved a worthy successor to the original Sharks, and these can now be seen adorning the sterns of trawlers from the Arctic to Australia. Mr Müller noted that these versatile doors can be used deep or shallow, on rough, sand or mud grounds with excellent results. A special reinforced version is available for the hardest grounds.
This is a tough business and we cant afford to produce something that isnt up to standard. At the same time, were continuously striving to set new standards just as we did when the original Shark doors hit the market.
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