The second day of the ZEVInnovation Project Workshop in Poland was held in CRIST, October 13th. The workshop was held in Gdańsk and Gdynia from 12 to 14 October 2022. Companies from Poland and and Croatia presented their production potential during two workshops.

The ZEVInnovation Workshop of the Project and BSSC Partners began with a study visit at the CRIST Shipyard. The Croatian side was represented by: Boris Cosić and Lovro Frković from CTT, and Bojan Bajić and Vedran Didara from IIR. The Norwegian Maritime Cluster was represented by: Barbara Salopek and Solene Fereon from VINCO, and Erlend Rodal and Per Ingeberg from ÅKP.

The guests and Polish participants of the meeting were welcomed by Marek Grzybowski, President of the Board of the Baltic Sea and Space Cluster.

12 innovative projects in production

- Currently, CRIST is implementing 12 innovative projects, including an electric ferry for a recipient from Finland. The production site of CRIST occupies over 28 ha adjacent to the port of Gdynia. As a relatively warm area, ice-free harbor waters, with good navigation conditions and with almost no tidal effects, it is easily accessible from the Atlantic through the Baltic sea - says Mirosław Roliński. He added - The production processes are performed in 4 production halls with 61 gantry cranes and portal cranes with a lifting capacity of up to 120 tons.

The visit to the shipyard was a chance to present the production process of innovative ships. Currently, almost every ship build in the shipyard has the character of a unique project. The presentation of the shipyard began in the production halls and went through the prefabrication hall and the module assmble workshop. In the halls, steel structures are cut, cleaned of rust, painted, and welded into structural elements of ships.

- The production lines include the following processes: preliminary fabrication line for steel plates and profiles, 10 gas and plasma devices for cutting of steel plates and profiles, 3 hydraulic presses of capacity to 1 thousand ton – informed Roliński.

A specialized ship in the dry dock

The next stage of the study visit was 381 metre long and 71 metre wide dry dock with depth of 8 metre. Roliński poined out the crane over the dry dock. It has a lifting capacity of 1000 t, span 153 m, height 106 m and coverage 58 293 m2.

- A specialized ships are produced in the dry dock. Crist shipyard is building a specialized vessel that will be used to build a tunnel between Germany and Denmark. Remote Controlled Gravel Layer (SDT) will be lowered from beneath the ship's hull to 46m below the waterline. Foundations for the sunken tunnel will be laid on the seabed. The ship will be very automated. The most modern positioning systems will be used – explains Roliński. A hull of a passenger ship is also built in the dry dock.

At the end of the study visit, Roliński presented an innovative ships built at CRIST. He presented, among others, heavy lift jack-up vessel Innovation and the jack-up barge Thor, and Vidar, vessel for the construction and operation of the offshore market.

- The Zourite is a self-lifting vessel intended for the construction of an offshore highway along the coast of Réunion Island (near Madagascar). An interesting project in Crist's portfolio is the Marco Polo floating dock, which was used to expand the area of the Principality of Monaco - said Roliński.

In the next part of the meeting, members of the Polish zero-emission vessel hub presented their capabilities.

ICT tools suport ZEV

The activities of Baltic ICT & IT HUB for the construction of zero-emission ships were presented by Grzegorz Kozłowski, CEO of CADOR. He discussed the operation of digital twins and the use of IT tools in the production of innovative ships. - CADOR is using Integrated Performance Engineering. It is used to optimize ship design, aerodynamics development, ship bulb optimization, hydrodynamic performance – informed Kozłowski.

ICT solutions, comprehensive document management, ideas for ICT tools useful in the ZEVInnovation project was presented by Andrzej Rapicki, CEO of WAELLER.

- The ICT tool can be used to support production management, monitoring of ZEV operation centers, ZEV service and repair support, automatic document management, ZEV fleet management – informed Rapicki. ICT can be used in the management of supply logistics, innovative production processes, quality control as well as finance and inventory management, certification and reporting.

Tomasz Lisiecki, CEO of LKK spoke about the areas of activity of the Center for New Competences. The center offers modern courses and trainings with the use of innovative simulation technology in virtual reality, which will safely accelerate learning and allow to obtain the license of a professional operator of handling equipment and other specializations.

StoGda activities, competences and portfolio

- StoGda Ship Design & Engineering is a leading design office in Poland that has been operating on the market for 25 years. The founders of the office associated with the Gdańsk Shipyard started with the shipbuilding industry, quickly expanding the offer of services to the offshore market and energy. The office is also involved in the development of offshore wind energy through jack-up installation vessel projects – informed Wojciech Caban.

The activities, competences and portfolio of StoGda products were presented by Wojciech Caban, the StoGda Marketing Department. More than 50 designers work at StoGda. The design office offers complete projects, including all design stages and all disciplines.

- StoGda offers Initial and Concept Design, Contractual Documentation, Class Documentation, Workshop Documentation, As-Built Documentation. StoGda is a pioneer of electric shipping, i.e. battery-powered ships. The first ferry built in the European Union was designed in Poland, in our office in Gdańsk. It is Elektra ferry, which won many awards, including the most important one in the world: the "Ship of the Year 2017" - informed Caban.

StoGda also specializes in the design of jack-up ships, i.e. self-elevating installation ships, which are used to build offshore wind farms. The first vessel of this type was the self-elevating barge Thor.

- Another jack-up, Vidar, was built on the basis of the proprietary project. The next project was the Zourite - self-elevating vessel equipped with eight legs and an gantry crane instead of a regular one. Battery RoRo passenger ferry Herjólfur is the next hybrid ship form StoGda. Battery double ended ferry Altera designed by our engineers is in exploitation now by Finnish shipowner – presented Wojciech Caban.

CRIST - innovative ships

The presentations of the companies ended with the presentation of CRIST activity, the shipyards competences, innovative solutions, innovative production processes and new electric ships and innovative CRIST constructions.

- Incorporated in 1990, at the begining CRIST operated as partnership of two industry experts, Mr. Ireneusz Ćwirko and Mr. Krzysztof Kulczycki, in 2010 advanced to join stock company. CRIST is expanding its business ever since. MARS FIZ has been operating since the second half of 2010, authorized by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Yearly turnover of CRIST S.A. is exceeding 100 mln euro – presented Roliński.

Today CRIST is a leader amongst European shipyards and one of the major players on the market of maritime constructions, specializing in steel structures and turn-key vessels.

- Crist Shipyard offers innovative ships to its foreign contractors. There are often unique products. We have been building vessels, platforms and offshore constructions, supporting our customers in achieving their business goals. We combine the latest technology with our experience to deliver tailormade solutions – informed Roliński.

CRIST cooperate with customers and shipyards all over the world. Over 300 completed projects, 1500 employees and workers, hi-tech production lines, latest technology implementation, a capacity to process over 50 thousand tons of steel a year is the CRIST portfolio and potential.

- The total deployment is estimated at average of 1500 employees including resident contractors supplemented to up to 2000 with local cooperation – said Roliński.

- At the moment we have under construction the second double ended ferry for our long-term Scandinavian client. Both vessels have got battery hybrid propulsion system which is an evolution and upgraded system which was firstly introduced on vessel delivered by us in 2017 Elektra, as a first in EU battery powered ferry – presented Mirosław Roliński.

Round table discussion

After the presentations of the Baltic Sea and Space Cluster companies, together with partners from Norway and Croatia, a Round Table discussion was held.

On the Polish side, the discussion was attended by BSSC Memebers representatives and Marek Grzybowski, BSSC President, Krzysztof Anzelewicz, Vice President of BSSC, and Jacek Milewski, Financial Director of CRIST, Member of the CRIST Board, Coordinator of the Polish ZEV HUB.

The main goal of the Round Table was the use of the potential of ZEVInnowation HUB for international cooperation in the production of electric ships and innovative solutions that can be used in the design of ZEV.

Representatives of maritime clusters from Croatia, Norway and Poland have the potential to jointly create innovations supporting the design and production of ZEV on the international market - this is the general conclusion of the Round Table discussion.