Turbine Access System Unveiled  

MDC member Houlder Ltd has teamed up with leading independent naval architect and marine design consultancy, BMT Nigel Gee, to develop a unique Turbine Access System (TAS) which made its world debut at Seawork 2010 last month.

 

Current offshore wind turbine crew access operations are carried out using the relatively high risk friction lock-on method. Houlder and BMT Nigel Gee have designed a TAS which increases safety as well as transfer wave height capability. The TAS achieves this by allowing the vessel a degree of vertical movement at the turbine by utilising a damped roller system and executing crew transfer via a lightweight, motion compensated gangway. This roller system also allows the vessel to position efficiently and safely at the turbine without the need for DP, eliminating wasted working time.

 

For further information and a video, click here

 

 

Vessel bids farewell to Tyne after refit  

BP oil tanker the British Serenity has sailed out of the Tyne after a £1m refit. The 47,000 tonne vessel has been undergoing maintenance at MDC member, A&P Tyne. A&P beat off stiff competition from around the world to secure the contract, which has now drawn to a close.

 

It comes after the firm secured a series of other deals from BP to refit smaller vessels, which demonstrated to the multi-national oil giant the work should come to Tyneside. Managing director, Stewart Boak said: “A&P Group has been working hard over the last six months to secure work from BP and convince them we can deliver our promises.” Mr Boak believes BP’s confidence was gained by recent refits to the vessels Border Heather on the Tyne and to the Border Thistle on the Tees and, in particular, by a team of A&P Tyne steelworkers who carried out repairs on the BP shuttle tanker Loch Rannoch in atrocious conditions at Sullom Voe on the Shetland Islands.

 

BP said the Tyneside yard won the contract after proving it could compete against other European yards “on safety, quality, time and cost”.

 

 

Alnmaritec Delivers Pollution Patrol Vessel 

Millford Haven Port Authority has welcomed the delivery of a new dual purpose pollution and patrol response craft to service the busy port. The Dynevor has joined the authority’s existing fleet of specialist vessels, following a series of successful sea trials. Built in Northumberland by MDC member Alnmaritec, the vessel is being introduced as a patrol craft following crew training.

Dynevor is just under 15 metres in length and able to carry up to 12 people. She is capable of speeds up to 29 knots, and will be a valuable asset in the deployment of pollution response equipment in the event of any incidents at the port.

 

Wavespec Sign Prosafe Offshore FMEA agreement

MDC member Wavespec has signed an agreement with Aberdeen based Prosafe Offshore to oversee and manage the FMEA documentation for the dynamic positioning (DP) system on Prosafe’s semi-submersible accommodation rig Safe Concordia. This will ensure that this key element of the vessel’s documentation is kept relevant and in class at all times.

 

Wavespec Ltd, a member of the Braemar Shipping Services plc group of companies, has been developing this management service in discussion with a number of potential clients over the past months. It is aimed at ensuring that the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis document is regularly reviewed and maintained up-to date, without imposing additional burdens upon the ship manager.

 

New home for GL Noble Denton

A steadily growing customer base and an increase in staff levels has seen MDC member GL Noble Denton relocate its Newcastle office to Northumberland Business Park, near Cramlington. General Manager, David Byrne and his team will also be sharing the offices with colleagues from GL, who Noble Denton merged with 18 months ago.

 

The company provides consulting and operations services for ships and ports worldwide, together with different types of marine operations: marine warranty, marine consulting, marine casualty investigations, marine operations and dynamic positioning. David Byrne, said: “Since we opened our Newcastle office at Seaton Burn three years ago we have grown in staff size from five to 14. We believe this number will grow as there are a large number of opportunities for new contracts and projects, so we felt it was important to move to new premises. The move also emphasises the new integrated form of GL Noble Denton in both Upstream and Downstream sectors of the oil and gas business wordwide.

 

The company is currently working on a number of LNG projects worldwide, the design for a new ferry facility on the River Mersey and work for the New Zealand Navy.

 

AVEVA Breakthrough on Collins Class Submarines

MDC partner AVEVA Group plc, one of the world’s largest engineering design and information management solutions to the plant, power and marine industries, has announced that ASC, amongst Australia’s most advanced naval warship and submarine builders, has successfully migrated the digital model of the Collins Class submarines from a legacy system to AVEVA Marine.

 

In 2003, ASC signed a multi-billion dollar Through-Life Support (TLS) contract with the Defense Material Organisation for design enhancements, maintenance and support of the Collins Class Submarines.

 

Following this, ASC recognised the need to further improve their ability to manage legacy data as well as new information arising from the TLS program. AVEVA offered them the opportunity to automate a transfer of the data model from their legacy systems into AVEVA Marine. This has allowed ASC to re-use the original Collins Class design data in an optimal way while providing the most advanced solutions for marine engineering of new programs.

 

Norway’s Guide to the UK Supply Chain

For companies interested in growing business in Norway, we bring to your attention the ‘Norway’s Guide’. This is an annual publication that highlights UK companies that can support and supply Norwegian engineering activities including those in marine & offshore markets. Each publication is divided into two sections and it is translated into Norwegian:

 

1. Editorial - covering the available skills in the UK.
2. Commercial - presenting your company.

 

‘Norway’s Guide’ is physically distributed to 4,000 Norwegian companies and a further 4,000 copies are issued at suitable conferences and exhibitions in Norway. 60,000+ contacts in key management and engineering positions will have access to the e-book version online.

 

To discuss presenting your company in ‘Norway’s Guide’ contact claud.kelley@norway2uk.com  or call  0191 645 0232.

 

Pieter Schelte contract awarded to DSME

The Swiss-based Allseas Group has awarded the building contract for the dynamically positioned platform installation / decommissioning and pipelay vessel Pieter Schelte to Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. You may recall that much of the initial design work for Pieter Schelte was carried out on Tyneside by Swan Hunter and Babcock. Delivery of the completed vessel is anticipated for 2013.

 

The contract value is 454.5 million Euros on a total building sum of over 1.3 billion Euros. The detail design of the vessel has been completed and long-lead items, such as the power generation equipment and thrusters, were ordered in March 2007. In June 2008, the high-tensile steel for the topsides and jacket lift systems were ordered. The total value of these orders was 200 million Euros.

 

Invitations to tender for the lift systems of Pieter Schelte will be sent out this summer.

 

The newbuilding, with a length of 382m and a width of 117m, will have a topsides lift capacity of 48,000 tonnes and a jacket lift capacity of 25,000 tonnes. The pipelay tension capacity will be 2000 tonnes, doubling the capacity of Allseas’ Solitaire and thereby surpassing her as the world’s largest pipelay vessel.

 

SG William Froude Visit Marine Design Centre

MDC was very pleased to host a visit last month from SG William Froude - a study group association from the University of Delft in Holland, which has a highly respected marine facility. 

 

The event at the MDC included presentations to the group from our members AVEVA (including an interactive design workshop) and PDL Solutions (on the NATO submarine rescue vessel). The visitors also spent time at our member company Alnmaritec, SMD and Newcastle University.

 

Business Opportunities 

A sample from the MDC contracts system:

 

UK - MOD: Future Sensing of Underwater Threats

The Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) is seeking applications that provide novel means to detect both static and mobile underwater targets.

 

UK: GRP Research & Patrol Vessel

Vessel of GRP construction for fisheries monitoring, enforcement and research.

 

UK - MOD: Miscellaneous Engineered Parts

The Fleet Wide Equipment – Training, Stores & Boats (FWE - TSB) Team has a possible future requirement for the supply and delivery of various general engineering hardware items including “off the shelf” recurring  requirements, together with less frequently procured items. There will be approximately 9 000 line items in total. The items comprise O-Rings, Gaskets, Seals, and similar type equipment. It will be an essential feature of any resultant contract(s) for supplier(s) to be able to source products not normally held as stock or within their normal product range.

 

To find out more about these opportunities or the MDC system please contact Simon Ellis on 0191 255 1710 or simon.ellis@marinedesigncentre.com

 

PDMS Training Dates

In conjunction with AVEVA, MDC's next PDMS training courses will be:

PDMS Equipment & Piping Design:

4th - 8th October 2010

PDMS Steelwork Design:   

6th - 10th September 2010;     8th - 12th November 2010

For further information please call 0191 255 1710 or email info@marinedesigncentre.com

 

Dates for the Diary