Liebherr provides electric adjustment system for Ayro’s wind-assisted cargo ship

Liebherr has provided its electric adjustment system to French industrial startup Ayro’s Canopée vessel – which it states is the first hybrid industrial cargo ship powered by wind.

The Canopée vessel has been equipped with four OceanWings. With a height of 37m and a surface area of 363m² each, this automated, lowerable and patented vertical wingsail technology has. been designed to help to reduce CO₂ emissions by cutting fossil fuel consumption.

Ayro’s 37m wingsails require a special solution due to their size, especially regarding their electrical actuators. According to the partners, the Liebherr-Components team from Biberach an der Riss (Germany) brought the expertise needed for the wingsail system.

A plug-and-play electric adjustment system for green shipping

The electric adjustment system consists of an adjustment module, control and power electronics. Each adjustment module contains a specific slewing bearing, gearboxes, electric motors and brakes to operate the large wingsails fully automatically.

“That is where Liebherr embarked on a joint development as a component supplier to respond directly to the customer’s needs,” explained Benjamin Schmid, head of sales – maritime applications at Liebherr-Components.

“To offer a turnkey plug-and-play solution, Liebherr integrated all the relevant elements into the wingsails. With the electric adjustment system, therefore, higher wingsails can be turned, whereas the user saves the time-consuming assembly and the adjustment time. On top, we take care of the perfect interaction of the components. In this way, we are able to fully exploit all the advantages of our products as a system and are proud to have designed such an electric adjustment system together with Ayro. With this development, we set a milestone for green shipping.”