Caley Ocean Systems, which provides offshore lifting and handling systems, has launched two tools for the offshore wind market, following their deployment at French offshore wind farms.
The tools are designed to support the installation of monopile and jacket foundations in offshore wind construction, by providing a localised, rigid deflection constraint.
The pile fixation tool (PFT) and the PileProp system have each been designed to operate independently of vessel interaction or station, prior to the critical grouting process of securing the foundations.
PFT is a “bespoke monopile foundation installation support” tool, developed to address the stabilising issues involved with monopile foundations being placed in pre-drilled boreholes, due to challenging seabed conditions.
This proven technology has been used to support DEME with the foundation installation on the St Nazaire offshore wind farm, off France’s west coast, in the Atlantic Ocean.
PileProp has been designed to aid securing the fixing of jacket foundations over pre-installed pile pins.
It complies with DNV regulation ST-0126, which advised minimising movement in all planes to 1mm, prior to grouting.
PileProp is being deployed in support of foundation installation work on St Brieuc offshore wind farm, with Caley’s client, Ailes Marines, which is the project developer.
These systems were developed as part of Caley’s collaboration with engineering design specialists Houlder, which covers a wide range of engineering design and installation tooling for offshore wind farm projects.
Both tooling systems aim to minimise installation downtime due to severe conditions and increasing the installation window, while increasing efficiency and speed of the installation process, to limit risk of early failure of grouting and reducing initial project and through life costs.
Kerrie Murray, CEO at Pryme Group, which owns Caley, said: “Our offshore wind capabilities have been significantly bolstered by these two innovative solutions, successfully operating in the field, and we are eager to work with existing and prospective partners to implement them across the world.
“We are dedicated to delivering solutions along with our partners to support current and future rapid growth opportunities within the offshore wind market.”