APPLICATION REPORT | SUBSEA LIFTING
P Underwater shot of the Shipshave against a ships’s hull
The Forties shutdown, originally scheduled for June 2020, was postponed due to pressure from operators amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But May 27, 2021, is now the firm date for the shutdown to begin, to end on June 16.“ There will be thousands of offshore
lifts to be carried out, and there is only so much equipment available in the rental fleet” says Sutherland. Hoists, clamps, and specialised shackles will all be in demand. Tiger, for example, has its BCU universal clamp, which is designed not only for vertical use but also for side load applications, where conventional clamps are not suitable. Lifting from offshore rigs is an obvious application - it can eliminate the use of spreader beams in some operations - or it can be used as a semi-permanent anchor point.
Tiger is also known for its manual lever chain hoists, and last year the company launched a new range of its SS hoists. “The SS range was developed with subsea lifting in mind,” says Sutherland. “Operators offshore were using standard, dry-land hoists and they were experiencing failures, because the hoists were just being used in the wrong environment. Offshore hoists have to resist ingress of foreign particles – sand and so forth; they must be corrosion resistant to salt water; and they must also be able to cope with dynamic loads. When a lifting vessel is bobbing up and down, a rope that is under high tension from the load can suddenly go to having no load on it at all, and the next wave can reverse the situation to several times the static load. So we looked at the failure modes of existing hoists, listened to customers, and developed the true sub-sea lever hoist.” That was their SS range. Its unique
rotational inertia driven torsion switch brake system copes with dynamic loading and counters known failure modes of standard hoists. “The range provides the safest dual brake system,” says Sutherland. “It means that the lever hoist will raise, hold, and lower the lightest load without slipping.” This year Tiger relaunched the range with improvements. “We redesigned parts of it by listening to customers,” says Sutherland. “The pinion shaft and disc hub are new, adding more strength and enabling quicker and easier maintenance. We have a brand-new
custom in-house paint coating that meets all the requirements of ISO 12944 to the classification of C5M for marine use, which gives excellent corrosion protection and high impact protection. The range can be supplied ATEX compliant, with moving parts copper-plated to avoid causing sparks. It has completed thousands of hours at work.” The offshore industry, he says, is busy at the moment not just in the North
Sea but worldwide. “Globally, there are oil finds off Venezuela and Guyana; in the Middle East the Qatar blockade has been lifted – we shall see how that plays out. And windfarms are being built everywhere – that is another challenge as technology changes and moves. We are at the forefront of R&D for the industry in lifting equipment for constructing and maintaining them. Green energy is already a large part of our structure, and another
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