Dynaweb (2017)

Dynaweb is a cross-disciplinary team project of a one-piece pilot ladder that is safer for pilots and more cost-effective for ship owners base on the paused evolution of pilot ladders (For vessel pilot to board the vessel) for 300 years. People died because of the outdated design every year.

The original design and the material made the traditional pilot ladder not reliable under extreme weather condition, lots of disadvantage was showed under different situation such as the rope is easy to break and people are swinging crazily in strong wind. The final design of Dynaweb is three times lighter and ten times stronger than existing ladders and limits swing and twist while retaining vertical flexibility.

The design, endorsed by United Kingdom Maritime Pilots Association and International Maritime Pilots' Association, was awarded the ‘Best Innovation’ and ‘Best Business Plan’ prizes by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Royal College of Art at their ‘Safety at Sea’ Grand Challenge. Later the Dynaweb is also being nominated for ‘Sea Trade Award 2017’.

The Dynaweb is still under development under the name of Helm innovation Ltd. in London so details of the design is classified due to IP application.

Team member:

Industrial designer: Shing Huang
Material designer: Irene Chiu
Engineer: Nick Hooton
Industrial designer: Markus Kung

A pilot was climbing a traditional pilot ladder. Many pilot was injured or dead due to the breaking of the pilot ladder. Usually they were suffered from hypothermia or crashed in between pilot boats and vessels.

In the early stage of the research, a specialized suit concept was designed to ensure the safety of the pilot boarding.

These sketches showed how the pilot suits should work to protect the user by providing an easier ascending method and crashed / temperature protecting device. This concept was not developed further due to the fact that the design of the pilot ladder will be the key factor to influence the international pilot community.

These sketches are the early design concepts of the Dynaweb, we broke down each risk elements of the traditional ladder and then tried to find a simple solution to solve those complex problems, and in the end, the Dyanaweb was born.