University Granted European Patent
The European Patent Office (EPO) has granted Gdynia Maritime University exclusive rights to the invention entitled: ‘Mobile electromagnetic mooring system for surface vessels’ under patent document No. 4082888. The authors of the patented invention are Dr Captain Grzegorz Rutkowski and Captain Paweł Kołakowski of the Department of Navigation at GMU’s Faculty of Navigation.
The subject of the invention granted a European Patent is a mobile electromagnetic mooring system for small surface vessels. It consists of a set of electromagnetic grippers powered by floating power buoys, connected by mooring lines to a set of mooring winches located at the bow and in the stern of the vessel. The system ensures controlled and constant tension in the mooring lines and enables free movement of a smaller intervention craft moored alongside a larger vessel along its hull.
The Mobile Electromagnetic Mooring System, controlled from an intervention craft, is designed to equip small intervention craft when moored alongside the hull of larger vessels in need of repair, servicing, the transfer of loads or passengers. This eliminates the need for the involvement of several crew members during mooring operations.
This is the first patent granted to GMU for a solution dedicated to the maritime sector. The patent validation process was completed in October.
The new patent forms part of the University’s technology portfolio, developed under the Innovation Incubator 4.0 programme carried out by the Technology Transfer Centre between 2020 and 2023 (implementation work UMG-03 link: https://umg.edu.pl/wyposazenie-mobilnej-bazy-morskiego-ratowniczego-serwisu-nurkowego-mob-meds ), within the non-competitive project entitled ‘Support for the management of scientific research and the commercialisation of the results of R&D work in scientific units and companies’, which is carried out within the framework of the Smart Growth Operational Programme 2014 - 2020 (Action 4.4).
Congratulations to those involved!