Foreshore Technology have just returned from Norway after installing a spud leg monitoring system on board "Hector".

"Hector", built and owned by Wasa Dredging is a Wasa BHD12000 dredger with a 250 ton Hitachi EX2500 that can dredge to a depth of 22 metres.

Mats Soderblom of Wasa Dredging said: "we wanted spud monitoring for several reasons. First of all in bad weather the operator had trouble seeing all the spud movements. Another thing is when we are dredging in soft clay, the operator can't feel how depp the spuds area and if they run them too deep the wire wheels and wires will go in to the clay and any stones might cause the wire to break. It's a big repair job to change the wire and its difficult to recover the spud"

The spud leg monitoring system consists of one sensor on each spud leg winch with a fourth sensor on the walking leg to measure its angle. The sensor casing and arrangement were designed and manufactured by Foreshore Technology.

As well as developing new hardware the existing Dredge Master software was also updated to provide new display symbols and warnings using the spud leg data.

The entire system on "Hector" was upgraded to support 3 displays in the Cab and the Bridge to provide a total of 6 displays for monitoring of the dredging works.