For the Linne lock near Roermond (situated in the Dutch province of Limburg), we had the privilege to supply six planetary drives to the Mourik-SWARCO combination for their client Rijkswaterstaat. (part of the Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management). The lock is used to enable ships to negotiate the level difference created by the Linne barrage. The level in the lock is regulated by means of sliding valves in submerged transfer pipes. The valves are opened and closed with the with the use of planetary gearboxes.

The gearboxes originally fitted to the lock date from 1922, and thus lasted for over 100 years. At first ELSTO Smart Solutions was approached by the customer to overhaul the existing gearboxes and make then more maintenance friendly.

When you are overhauling a system that is over 100 years old, it is always a surprise what you will find during disassembly. Also some materials are hard to get, or have a long delivery times. But also the interests of both shipping- and road traffic have to be taken into consideration since during the overhaul the lock cannot be used by either of them. Therefore the project must be finished withing the timespan available. To avoid any risk of unwanted surprises or delays ELSTO Smart Solutions and ELSTO teamed up and proposed a completely new drive system that also included all the improvements desired by the customer.

Thanks to our engineering department, an extensive parts stock and our own production facilities we were able to realise this new drive system within only a few months delivery time. To make sure the quality demands in place were met, we made strength and theoretical lifetime calculations to prove the soundness of the proposed solution. The Mourik-SWARCO combination agreed with this solution and together with Rijkswaterstaat they decided to use our proposal for the Linne Lock.

Much to our delight both the Mourik-SWARCO combination and Rijkswaterstaat informed us that they very happy with the end result, and intend to implement more of these solutions. We thank them for the trust placed in us and the very nice order.