HB Hunte engineering GmbH – the Oldenburg-based company belonging to the Hartwig Brand family – celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
However, the family can trace its shipping history back to when the Heinrich Brand shipyard was founded in 1850.
In the course of conversion from wood to iron shipbuilding the family Brand moved their enterprise 1918 to the site on the river Hunte where the company is still located.
Moving on to 1997, the Brands stopped buildings vessels in their own yard but
at the end of that year, Hartwig Brand founded, together with a small number of former shipyard designers, the engineering office Hartwig Brand.
In mid-1999 he founded – with the participation of the next generation of his family – Wiebke and Frerk Brand – HB Hunte Engineering GmbH.
Today with 35 employees, HB Hunte Engineering has developed into an international company specialising in modern and creative special ship designs.
The portfolio ranges from the ship’s concept to the production documents and includes all related disciplines, such as shipbuilding, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and gas technology, plus other services, such as construction, calculation, project management, construction supervision and much more.
As for Hunte’s passenger vessel involvement, in 2017/2018, HB Hunte Engineering GmbH created the detail design for the lengthening of the fropax ‘Peter Pan’ and undertook all the strength calculations for the complex assembly procedure of the new section to be fitted.
Currently, the HB Hunte, on behalf of two conversion yards and the Hurtigruten, is working on the detail engineering and gas plant design for six passenger ship conversions to an environmentally friendly marine hybrid propulsion system with LNG as a fuel.
The cruise ferries’ gas tank system was developed by Hunte Engineering specifically for these six Hurtigruten ships and is claimed to represent a breakthrough in the field of Type-C pressure tank technology.
The tank’s shape allows a considerable space-saving arrangement and is particularly suitable for passenger ships, due to its geometry and the very high safety level.
The gas processing system FGSS (Fuel Gas Supply System) is being supplied in co-operation with Høglund Marine Gas Solutions in Hamburg. Hunte Engineering will be responsible for the mechanical construction of the Høglund gas plant components and their integration into the ships’ propulsion systems.
