From Finnish forests to North Sea winches

Like any creative profession, engineering can draw inspiration from both close at hand and far beyond its own field. Evotec’s engineers are no exception.

The company is now supplying two complete launch and recovery systems (FlexiLARS™) for REM Pioneer. At the heart of both systems is Evotec CORE™ – Evotec’s technology platform for electric winch drive and control. The permanent-magnet motor is one of its key building blocks and the starting point for this story.

For instance, the motors enable the winches aboard REM Pioneer to accelerate at up to 2.5 metres per second squared. This is particularly important in rough weather, when the winches must pay out and reel in the cable rapidly to compensate for the vessel’s movements and keep the ROV stable in the water.

‘The magic happens in the motor and gearbox. It is about using less power to do the same job. The motor does not work alone, however. Its performance is realised through the interaction between the motor, gearbox, drive technology and Evotec’s control system,’ Geir Henning Kalvatn, sales manager for offshore and wind at Evotec, tells Skipsrevyen.

Evotec signed the contract in 2024. The delivery consists of two complete launch and recovery systems: one over-side system and one moonpool system. Both are rated for a safe working load of 12 tonnes and designed for operations at depths of up to 3,000 metres.

The equipment has now been delivered to Myklebust Verft, where installation is under way. Commissioning and testing will follow before the vessel is scheduled for delivery later in 2026.

Kalvatn says the technical specification has remained unchanged since the contract was signed. He attributes that to the close collaboration between Rem Offshore, Skipsteknisk, Myklebust Verft and Evotec, which allowed the parties to resolve key operational and integration requirements before the order was placed.

Found in a forest

To trace the origins of the motor, one must leave the sea behind.

When developing winches, the obvious place to look for inspiration might be within the maritime industry. Sometimes, however, engineers need to lift their gaze and look in a completely different direction. After all, where else are heavy lifting, safety and efficiency equally fundamental?

In the Land of a Thousand Lakes, the trail leads away from the water and deep into Finland’s forests. There, forestry machines lift, pull and move heavy loads through demanding terrain. Evotec’s engineers saw another opportunity in the technology powering them.

With hindsight, the connection seems almost obvious. The ingenuity lay in recognising it. In 2018 and 2019, Evotec began exploring whether a motor developed for Finnish forestry machines could be marinised and put to work in winches at sea.

The supplier had developed an SRPM motor – short for synchronous reluctance-assisted permanent-magnet motor – for heavy machinery. At the time, it was already in regular use in Finnish forestry machinery.

The engineers at Evotec saw another opportunity.

‘We believe we were the first in the world to use that motor for this purpose. We brought it in and investigated whether we could marinise it and use it for winches,’ Kalvatn says.

The company spent several years adapting and developing the solution. By 2020–21, the motors were being used in winch deliveries to both fishing vessels and offshore vessels. Kalvatn estimates that Evotec now has around 1,000 of them in daily operation around the world.

According to Kalvatn, the motor has an efficiency of approximately 97 per cent. He contrasts it with the asynchronous motors commonly used in other winch systems.

His preferred comparison comes from the car industry: the size of the battery matters, but so does how efficiently the drivetrain uses the energy stored in it.

‘You have to start with an efficient motor. That allows you to get a great deal of power out of it without using a great deal of electricity,’ he says.

One motor - from two to 100 tonnes

The motor itself is only one part of the idea. Evotec has built its winch philosophy around using the same motor and drive as modular building blocks throughout its systems.

The same motor type can be used in a two-tonne winch or a 100-tonne winch. The required capacity is created by configuring the system and adapting the gearbox to the load.

According to the sales manager, this will reduce the number of different spare parts the vessel must carry. It also means that a replacement motor kept on board can be used in several locations rather than being tied to one particular winch.

‘If a motor fails, they can use the motor they have in stock, because we use the same type throughout. They save storage space and logistics costs,’ Kalvatn says.

The modular set-up also forms part of Evotec’s redundancy philosophy. The winches are designed so that the crew can stop an operation and recover the equipment even if part of the motor capacity is lost.

For a working ROV and its umbilical, both of which represent considerable value, that can make the difference between bringing the equipment safely back on deck and having to cut the cable.

Evotec has also carried out a Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis, or FMECA, to identify how components and systems could fail before the equipment enters service. Where a potential failure was deemed critical, further redundancy could be built into the system. The equipment is designed in accordance with the relevant DNV lifting appliance standards, DNV-ST-0377 and DNV-ST-0378.

Sends power back to the batteries

The solution is particularly well suited to REM Pioneer. The vessel is built around a DC grid and a battery package, while the equipment supplied by Evotec is electrically driven.

When a winch lowers the ROV, the motor can regenerate energy and return it to the vessel’s batteries. The stored energy can then be used elsewhere on board.

‘Our equipment fits very well on a DC vessel. When we lower an ROV, we feed the power back into the battery,’ Kalvatn says.

Connecting directly to the vessel’s DC grid also allows Evotec to avoid some of the components that would be required in an AC installation. According to Kalvatn, this makes the system more efficient while reducing both the number of components and potential points of failure.

He also points to the difference between the electrical solution and a conventional hydraulic power unit, which requires energy to generate and maintain hydraulic pressure.

The electric winches are part of a wider energy concept aboard the Skipsteknisk-designed vessel. REM Pioneer will combine dual-fuel methanol engines with batteries, while its offshore lifting equipment – including a 250-tonne crane – is electrically driven and able to regenerate energy.

Keeps the ROV still

Efficiency is not the only reason Evotec chose the motor. Its rapid response is central to the system’s active heave compensation. The response can be compared with that of a modern electric car: torque is available immediately, without hydraulic pressure having to build up first.

While the vessel rises and falls with the waves, the system pays out and reels in the umbilical to keep the ROV as still as possible near the seabed. The winch must accelerate, stop and reverse continuously, and the movement becomes faster as conditions deteriorate.

As for the aforementioned acceleration of 2.5 metres per second squared, Kalvatn says it could allow operations to continue in wave heights of roughly four to five metres.

‘If the winch cannot move quickly enough, the operation has to stop. With our winches and active heave compensation, we can operate in poorer weather. That means a great deal,’ he says.

Keeping the ROV steady also reduces the loads placed on both the vehicle and its umbilical.

The over-side system uses an A-frame and winch to launch and recover the ROV over the vessel’s side. The moonpool system performs the same task through the centre of the vessel using a cursor system, winch, hatch and sheave arrangement.

Together, the two FlexiLARS™ systems allow the ROV to be launched and recovered either over the side or through the vessel’s moonpool. They integrate winches, mechanical handling equipment and Evotec’s control technology into complete launch and recovery solutions. The control system coordinates the different functions, including active heave compensation, the winches, side doors, moonpool hatch and sheave arrangement.

A vote of confidence

There was one point Evotec was particularly keen to emphasise: the gratitude – and humility – with which the company speaks about its collaboration with Rem Offshore.

‘I would also like to highlight the collaboration between Rem Offshore and Evotec. It has been absolutely fantastic, and we would like to thank them for placing their trust in us to deliver this,’ Kalvatn says.

The relationship between the two companies stretches back around a decade. Over that period, Evotec has supplied handling equipment for several Rem Offshore vessels. It has been built on trust, and on Evotec delivering what it promised.

Kalvatn points out that when a relationship like this is nurtured over time, the return is not measured in money alone. The reward for building that relationship over a decade is the confidence to take a chance when an idea moves beyond the familiar. In this case, Rem Offshore was willing to back a solution Kalvatn describes as ‘state of the art’.

‘What we have done in this project is find a shared solution that both they and we were happy with. We have also shown that we have the expertise to develop the forward-looking solutions they want.’

Bringing it into a major vessel project required the shipowner, vessel designer, operator and supplier to develop the solution together. It also required Rem Offshore to recognise its potential and take a calculated risk. So far, Kalvatn says, the project remains on schedule and within budget, while the shipowner is pleased with the delivery.

Prepared for control from shore

The delivery is also prepared to support a future upgrade to Evotec CORE™ Remote. The option has not been activated for REM Pioneer, but the system architecture allows the required software, sensors and integration scope to be added later if requested by the owner or charterer.

That would make it possible to automate the launch and recovery sequence and control it from a remote operations centre on land. A sequence that currently requires several people in the hangar or on deck could then be initiated through the control system.

Kalvatn stresses that Evotec’s role covers the handling of the ROV from the deck and into the sea, and back again. Once the vehicle reaches working depth, the ROV operator takes control of the subsea task.

‘The flexibility is that they can choose. They can have people on board for one job and carry out the next from a control centre ashore,’ he says.

Evotec already has a remote launch and recovery system in operation with DeepOcean’s unmanned surface vessel USV Challenger. For REM Pioneer, however, remote operation remains an option that can be selected when an owner or charterer sees the need.

For Evotec, CORE is not a single component. It brings together electric drive technology, intelligent control and the experience accumulated by its engineers through years of developing handling systems for demanding operations.

‘The motors are the same as those we used in 2020. What we have refined is the robustness of the winch, the gearing, the drives and the control system. That entire Evotec CORE package has become better,’ Kalvatn says.

From Finnish forestry machinery to a winch system rated for 12-tonne loads at depths of 3,000 metres, the distance is considerable. For Evotec, it has taken eight years of development.