Allseas / Excalibur Engineering

The Pieter Schelte, a ship that will be built by the offshore company Allseas will be able to lift and carry big oil rigs of some 48,000 tonnes in one go from their base, instead of in small pieces as was customary. It will also be used as a vessel for laying oil and gas pipelines at a depth of 3500 m with a record speed of more than seven kilometers per day.

In 2007 Fortan executed parts of the design of the hoisting rig. This consisted of the TLB (tilt lifting beam) which is supported in sleep mode by the Support Stool. A JIB (extension beam) was added to the TLB to increase its length in working condition. On the top of the TLB, the two lifting arms could be connected by the COB (cross over beam). Then there was a storage/lifting device which provides storage, positioning and attachment of the COB in relation to the TLB.

In addition to the enormous size of the elevating unit there were additional concept requirements such as sea fastening and movement control, reliability, and corrosion resistance, which made the designing a complex process. After the first concepts Fortan used Powerframe and Staad software for FEM strength calculations of various components. This formed the basis from which further plans followed. For the realization of the structural design, conventional 2-D Acad drawings were combined with 3-D modeling and design in Tekla Structures. Inventor software was used for the design of the machine parts.

© 2012 Fortan B.V.