Hyundai Heavy’s SkyBench gets second AIP

L to R: Mr. Trond Hodne, DNV GL Business Director Maritime; Mr. Im Hong-il, Senior Engineer and Team Leader of the Basic Hull Design Department of HHI's Shipbuilding Division; Mr. Shin Sung-ho, Head of Pre-Contract Maritime at DNV GL in Korea; Mr. Jan-Olaf Probst, Head of Business Development Hamburg at DNV GL – Maritime

SEPTEMBER 9, 2016 — SkyBench, an innovative design for maximizing cargo loading capacity of large containerships developed by shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) received a second approval in principle (AIP) from DNV GL for at this week’s SMM event in Hamburg, Germany.

SkyBench has a mobile accommodation block that is mounted on rails and can move over the span of two 40 ft container bays.

The SkyBench allows for additional storage as it utilizes the void space beneath the sliding block. Safety of the vessel’s crew is enhanced by the buoyancy of the detachable design should the ship sink.

In combination with a resizing and relocation of fuel tanks and the utilization of the void spaces beneath the accommodation block in the traditional design, SkyBench allows the addition of two extra 20 ft container bays.

HHI received a first AIP from DNV GL in June last year, confirming the classification society’s approval of the SkyBench concept design.

In this second AIP, says HHI, the classification society verifies the strength and structural analysis including the overall finite element analysis conforming to S11A rule, a partial ship analysis, an overall hatch corner’s relative deformation check, a spot fatigue check for several critical hatch corner locations, and a detailed analysis of the design with a solid model for the parking device.

Mr. Im Hong-il, senior engineer and team leader of Basic Hull Design Department of HHI’s Shipbuilding Division said, “It has been a great pleasure for us to have the opportunity to work with DNV GL for the successful completion of this project for the past two years. We would also like to extend our appreciation for their two consecutive approvals of the SkyBench and their statement of witness for 2:1 scale SkyBench mock-up test.”

Video released in 2014 shows how SkyBench works