Offshore staff
KRISTIANSAND, Norway – MacGregor is building what it claims will be one of the most advanced fiber-rope knuckle-boom cranes on the market.
The MacGregor FibreTrac system, which will have a 150-metric ton (165-ton) safe working load capacity, should be ready for testing during 1Q 2018.
Høye Høyesen, vp, Advanced Offshore Solutions at MacGregor, said: “The greatest advantage of fiber-rope when handling loads in ultra-deepwater is that it weighs virtually nothing in water.
“This neutral buoyancy means that, regardless of the length of rope paid out, the fiber-rope does not add anything to the load experienced by the crane. Cranes can therefore retain their full payload lifting capacity all the way down to maximum depth.
“This is in complete contrast to using wire rope, where the ever increasing weight of wire paid out limits the load permissible in relation to depth.”
The crane is designed to comply with the latest DNV GL lifting appliance, fiber and rope manufacturing rules, DNVGL-ST-E407 (deployment and recovery system).
Other technologies to be deployed with the crane are the Parkburn Deep Water capstan with storage winch, capable of accommodating 4,000 m (13,123 ft) of 88-mm rope, and Lankhorst’s Lankodeep fiber rope made from DSM Dyneema’s DM20 XBO fiber with DNV 303 certification.
The rope will be connected directly to the crane hook using a socketed termination from Applied Fiber.
Another feature is a rope monitoring and management system said to maximize rope lifespan and providing clear lift line status information for the operator at all times, with real-time data transmitted also to onshore locations using MacGregor’s ‘OnWatch’ technology.
05/30/2017
