JHF and Schoellhorn-Albrecht Design Accommodating Ladders

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Schoellhorn-Albrecht Machine Co., a local St. Louis customer of John Henry Foster, has designed and manufactured marine deck equipment for over 130 years. Their story is pretty unique- check it out, here: Schoellhorn-Albrecht

One of the many cool products SA routinely designs and manufactures is referred to as a Tug to Barge Accommodation Ladder. These ladders- which can be operated with electric or pneumatic controls- are basically portable stairs that allow for crew movement/access between a tug boat and barge. Learn More

JHF and SA worked together to design a pneumatic control system for these accommodation ladder systems. Eric Moore, SA's Engineering Manager, has worked with our very own Ted Cassimatis for over three years and had this to say about the project and his experience with JHF:

"Schoellhorn-Albrecht Machine Co. has supplied several Accommodation Ladders used on Articulating Tug and Barges or ATB’s. ATB’s are commonly used to transport bulk materials because the tug and barge can be separated from each other thus eliminating the need for each barge to have its own propulsion system. Since ATB’s were introduced, operators have faced many challenges to safely allow the crew access between the tug and barge while at sea. S-A is proud to work with JHF to design the Pneumatic Tug and Barge Accommodation Ladder system. Pneumatics are the preferred power supply because they can tap into the existing tugs air compressor and the inherent explosion proof needed to transport petroleum products."