WORKSHOP ON NEW TANKER CONCEPTS
POWERED BY REAL TIME VISUALISATION
The ongoing energy transition and digital transformation will bring a fundamental change to the design of our future ships. Recently, representatives from Stena Teknik, Stena Bulk and Northern Marine joined forces in an innovative workshop where ideas for three new tanker concepts were discussed and visualised in real time by a master ideator from an award-winning industrial design agency.
The workshop was part of a concept design project focusing on new designs for a Medium Range (MR) tanker, a Suezmax and a chemical tanker. The lunch-to-lunch gathering was facilitated by Mika Heikkinen from Northern Works in Finland.
“We want to remain in the forefront now when the decarbonisation and digitalisation trends are gaining momentum rapidly in the shipping industry. Bringing our technical, commercial and operational teams together, with a renowned industrial designer as external ‘power source’, definitely gave the discussions a boost,” says Ron Gerlach, Technical Director at Stena Teknik.
In the workshop, Mika’s creative talent, combined with his ability to understand complex technical challenges, were used to translate the discussions into instant hand drawings of potential vessel designs.
“The possibility to get instant visual expressions of discussed ideas proved to be inspiring and valuable in a previous RoRo project I was part of. The drawings bring the discussion forward, and the most promising ones can be turned into 3D renderings and technical specifications in future project stages,” explains Martin Carlsson, Naval Architect and Project Manager at Stena Teknik.
“The workshop became a spot-on example of Stena Teknik’s ambition to help our shipping colleagues achieve their goals. It even resulted in a spin-off project that will focus on the visual appearance of future ships. New energy sources will influence the look of our vessels. One example is that we may want to fit several massive sail units on an already crowded weather deck. Furthermore, the interior has to be functional and attractive in order to attract and keep the best crew members,” Martin continues.
Jacob Enersen, General Manager Crude & Fuel and projects at Stena Bulk, was also very happy with the outcome of the workshop.
“The key to our future success is to strike the right balance between commercial and technical aspects. By blending experiences from earlier tanker generations with an innovative approach to new challenging demands, we become better equipped to make the right decisions moving forward. Breaking with the traditional way to create new ship concepts makes is easier to push the limits.”
The operational aspects on the new tankers were represented by Martyn Kelly, Fleet Manager at Northern Marine.
“At Northern Marine, we operate the ships on a day-to-day basis from a technical management perspective and it is extremely beneficial in the early stages of the new build project to engage with colleagues from the wider Stena group. Mika’s ability to visualise group discussion points was an invaluable tool in bringing the various ideas and concepts to life,” he says.
