Classification outfit Bureau Veritas has completed new guidelines for the manufacture of walk-to-work devices in the offshore wind industry.
The rules provide an overview of safety and technical principles for designing and manufacturing equipment for personnel transfer at sea via offshore access systems (OAS).
Bureau Veritas’ head of offshore Matthieu de Tugny said getting workers safely onto offshore structures has become a “big issue”.
“Walk-to-Work OAS can provide significant safety, operability and/or cost advantages over more traditional personnel transfer methods such as personnel basket or capsule lifts, step-over from high speed crew transfer vessels and helicopter transfers,” he said.
“We see a lot of new vessel types emerging with these motion-compensated gangways and it is imperative that the industry has a standard against which to assess their safety and to help develop safe new designs.”
Image: OAS in action from the Acta Orion (Acta Marine)
Bureau Veritas inks offshore code
Guidelines published to boost safety of worker transfer operations
By EBS