New Food Lift for RAN vessels

Australian Maritime Technologies (AMT) was engaged to upgrade the existing food hoist capability onboard the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Leeuwin Class Hydrographic Ships. The existing food hoist had been tagged out of service for several years and all stakeholders were eager to re-instate this capability.

AMT developed preliminary and detailed design packages to replace the existing food hoist with a new fully integrated commercial off the shelf (COTS) food lift system.

The food lift system was successfully integrated, commissioned and set-to-work on two vessels for the RAN.

Some key attributes of the new food lift design include:

• Rated load of 250 kg
• Rack and pinion drive mechanism
• Dual motors and worm-gear driven gearboxes
• Fully enclosed lift car with independent roller shutter doors
• Landing doors with electro-mechanical interlocks integrated into the control system
• Overload detection; and
• Sea state immobilisation functionality.

AMT provided a range of technical and support services from early engineering assessment and concept development phases, through to procurement and implementation, encompassing the following major activities:

• Engineering Assessment
• Preliminary Design
• Detailed Design
• Rip-Out Documentation
• Design Integration
• Installation Drawings
• Supply of OEM Equipment
• On-site Production Support
• Safety and Risk Assessment
• Subcontractor Management
• Inspection, Testing and Trials
• User Training; and
• Integrated Logistics Support.

The reinstatement of this capability represents an important role in facilitating the movement of stores and provisions throughout the ship. More importantly though, this is a major advancement in safety and efficiency for the platform as the need for ship staff to carry these items throughout the ship has been eliminated, reducing both time taken to complete tasks and the potential for manual handling hazards.