Sliding bar (shipbuilding)

Sliding bar on Maria S. Merian in retracted state

The sliding beam is a lateral, sliding arm, which is preferably used on German research vessels to load heavy marine research equipment alongside. It is a steel girder that is installed and slidable in the transverse direction of the ship. At the top of the sliding beam there are pulleys and in some cases small auxiliary cranes (so-called "luffers").

On the German research ship Maria S. Merian , the sliding bar can be topped up, ie it can not only be moved, but also folded up. Then the sliding beam can be used as a crane .

The advantage of installing equipment from the side is that there is less movement of the ship, while there is usually a greater lift at the stern .

Web links

• Handbook Maria S. Merian, on the website of the University of Hamburg (PDF file; 20 MB), slide bar in Sections 8.3 and 8.4
• Manual Meteor (PDF file; 9.89 MB)
• Sun manual (PDF file; 149 kB)