In September 2022, the ferry Medstraum received the Ship of the Year award at the world's leading maritime trade fair SMM in Hamburg. The Medstraum has been in regular service in Stavanger, Norway, since summer 2022. The EU-wide TrAM project consortium relied on the principle of modularization to build ferries, which are usually complex and time-consuming individual constructions, faster and more cost-effectively. Reusable building blocks in development and production should make shipbuilding significantly faster, more efficient and therefore more competitive.
"The competitiveness of all-electric high-speed ferries is significantly increased by modular design and modular production," says Dr. Christoph Jürgenhake from Fraunhofer IEM, who was responsible for the development of a holistic design methodology. (© Marius Knutsen / TrAM consortium)Fraunhofer IEM is responsible for the development of a holistic methodology that will support the maritime industry in the design and construction of modular ferries in the future. With Model-Based Systems Engineering, the researchers developed a common understanding between all development partners. The linchpin is a system model that makes complexities and dependencies in development transparent and manageable.
The highlight: the system model is solution-neutral and can be used flexibly - a milestone in shipbuilding. The analysis of the requirements of different ferry types provides standard elements for development, similar to a modular principle. Developers of new ferry projects can reuse the concepts and thus save up to 70 % development time and 25 % manufacturing costs.
The demonstrator ferry Medstraum ("with electricity" or "direct current" in Norwegian) was built at the Fjellstrand shipyard in Norway. It has been in regular service between the city of Stavanger and the surrounding municipalities and islands since summer 2022.
Technical data at a glance:
- Capacity: 150 passengers
- 31 meters long / 9 meters wide
- Operating speed of 23 knots
- Savings of currently 1500 tons ofCO2 per year (depending on area of operation)
- Two electric motors and a battery with a capacity of 1.5 MWh and a charging capacity of more than 2 MW
- Classification according to the International Code of Safety for High-Speed Crafts (HSC Code)
