Hampiðjan received the Icelandic Fisheries Awards for the best new product presented at the Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition/IceFish 2024 in Fífan, Kópavogur. The award was for a new DynIce Optical Data Cable Winch specifically designed for the DynIce Optical Data fiber-optic cable, and has been in development in recent months. Hjörtur Erlendsson, CEO of Hampiðjan, accepted the award at a formal ceremony at the exhibition, attended by the Minister of Food and Agriculture and numerous distinguished guests. The awards are organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Kópavogur Municipality.
The award ceremony began by celebrating the 40th anniversary of IceFish, with special recognition given to the most loyal exhibitors from the event’s inception, including Hampiðjan.
The winch is a remarkable piece of engineering, designed by Hampidjan with the assistance of Erik van der Woude, a technical consultant and built by Naust Marine in Spain, who took great care in the construction.
The winch features a drum with a towing system that maintains a constant tension of about 800 kg on the cable, preventing it from sinking into the layers below and being pinched, which could break the fiber-optic cable. It also has an arm that precisely arranges the fiber-optic cable onto the drum.
The winch is designed for fishing but is also useful in other industries where large amounts of data need to be transmitted from great depths to control stations above water. This equipment will play a significant role in the future of fishing because when information from the gear underwater to the vessel is almost unlimited, fishing can be managed much more effectively.
Photo from the award ceremony: Fiskifréttir/Eva Björk.
