Failure of ROV lift umbilical winch brake – Update

  • Safety Flash
  • Published on 2 August 2001
  • Generated on 15 September 2025
  • IMCA SF 09/01
  • 1 minute read

In the Safety Flash 08/01 (Failure of ROV lift umbilical winch brake) we reported an incident concerning an uncontrolled ROV umbilical winch run off involving a MacArtney CORMAX unit manufactured by Norlau.

The member company has updated us on this issue noting that the manufacturer has now acknowledged that there is a design problem and that until they can provide a technical solution, the manufacturer recommends that that winches should be operated at low speed only.

This is a short-term measure; the long-term solution may involve modifications to the winch system.

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