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Since last year, Damen Shipyards Group has been divided into six divisions, one of which is Damen Naval. We are taking an introductory tour of the companies and partners within this division. In this second installment, we present engineering firm Nevesbu, which has been a partner of Damen Naval for many years.
For 86 years, engineering firm Nevesbu has been helping Dutch and foreign shipbuilders design, among other things, naval vessels. “We have been working with Damen Naval for a very long time and with good results,” says Bart van Rijssen, who has been the director of the Alblasserdam-based design company since October last year. Nevesbu is an independent engineering collective that was founded in 1935. With an enthusiastic team, the company offers multidisciplinary support for both new-build designs and modernisation projects of existing naval and offshore vessels for Dutch and foreign clients.
Nevesbu director Bart van Rijssen.
This ranges from technical support during the procurement process, where Nevesbu helps its clients to define the requirements and produce the concept design, to full design, engineering and technical support during the construction process. Bart van Rijssen explains that specialists from his firm are currently assisting Damen Naval with the engineering for the German F126 frigate project. “We have traditionally worked closely with Damen Naval – and DMO – in designing ships for the Royal Netherlands Navy.”
In the specialism of naval modernisation, Nevesbu is currently providing the engineering for an upgrade of the Indonesian corvette KRI Usman Harun. “The Indonesian Navy has purchased new sensors and weapon systems for this ship. Nevesbu is the platform system integrator for this project and, in cooperation with Thales, is ensuring that those systems are properly integrated on the frigate so that it will last for years to come. We do this type of work for navies of other countries too.” Originally a naval engineer, Bart once again emphasizes that the cooperation with Damen Naval is excellent.
For the Royal Netherlands Navy, Nevesbu took care of the system integration of the innovative LFAS system on the Dutch M-frigates.
“It is always nice to see elements of your own work in a ship that is launched. Our personnel who contributed to the LST 100 project for the Nigerian Navy were extremely proud.” Bart van Rijssen
“There are actually always a number of people from our office working in Vlissingen. Our computer systems are perfectly aligned with each other. For the F126 project, we ‘translate’ the client’s design requirements into 3D designs. We also contributed to the design of LST 100, the versatile landing craft that was recently launched for the Nigerian Navy. Nevesbu worked in a team with Damen Naval on the engineering of this vessel. It is always nice to see elements of your own work in a ship that is launched. Our personnel who contributed to this project were extremely proud.”
Nevesbu is working on the integration of new systems for the Indonesian light frigate KRI Usman-Harun.
Nevesbu is also skilled in designing submarines. It is no coincidence that Bart worked as an officer in the Dutch Submarine Service. “The Naval Museum in Den Helder is home to the HNLMS Tonijn, a submarine decommissioned in 1992 that Nevesbu designed. The Tonijn was a very progressive design for its time; it had three cylinders, which was unusual in those days. The designs of the Dutch Walrus class and the Sea Dragon class, a submarine of the Taiwanese Navy, were also made by Nevesbu.”
“There are about sixty people working here,” says Bart. “We are an old company – in 2025 we will be 90 years old – but we have a young team: the average age is 38. It is an enthusiastic, international group of highly educated people, who carry out their work with great commitment and passion. They are people who love a technical challenge and enjoy working on creative solutions.”
Impression of new plastic hoods for the Walrus class submarines.
After naval construction, the offshore industry is the most important market in which Nevesbu is active. “FPSOs are of particular interest to us,” explains Bart. “FPSO stands for Floating Production, Storage and Offloading. FPSOs are large floating factories that are deployed for oil and gas production. We help design such installations, but also assist with conversions, when FPSO units have to be relocated to a different location and adapted to those different circumstances. We also operate in the Offshore Renewables market: offshore wind farms. We have high expectations for this relatively new market, because it looks like it will grow considerably in the near future. Our knowledge and experience will be very useful there as well.”