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Sector
Marine
Location
Scotland
Services
SmartLoad®
Our partnership with Unique Seaflex Ltd
Overview
Unique Seaflex Ltd, manufacturers of underwater air lift bags commonly used in the offshore oil and gas industry, contacted Scotload to support some full-scale load monitoring safety trials.
The challenge
Subsea air bags are commonly used to support divers installing, re-positioning or removing subsea pipelines and manifolds.
There have been several incidents in the offshore industry where the air lift bags have been accidentally released from the seabed and entered a Dive Support Vessel’s thruster, causing it to lose power and ultimately its position over the diver.
The Solution
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has issued guidance notices relating to a multitude of offshore activities and equipment and their Guidance D016 covers air lift bags.
Within Guidance D016 information is provided to manufacturers detailing the safety features air lift bags must contain, one of which is the inverter line attachment point on the very crown of the bag. The purpose of this is to provide a tie off point for a rope to be connected back to the load, so that in the event of rigging failure between the air lifting bags and the load, the bag is prevented from ascending to the surface. The line arrests the bag, and then turns it upside down to allow the air to escape before the bag gently settles back on the seabed.
IMCA asked Unique Seaflex to carry out some full-scale trials in an 8m deep tank at the National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen to measure the load experienced by the inverter line while inverting an air lift bag, in order to provide advice to air lift bags uses on which breaking strain of line to use.
The Result
Most commercially available alternative systems have a relatively low sample and transmit rate rendering them unsuitable for dynamic measurement, but SmartLoad® is designed for speed data acquisition and transmission.
This is achieved by incorporating a data-logger in the sensor interface, enabling the data to be sampled at 200 Hz and then transmitted to the receiving station immediately after the test. The signal is bi-directional, enabling the monitoring and telemetry to be configured and controlled from the remote station.
Key outcomes
IMCA asked Unique Seaflex to test the load on the inverter line of an air lift bag while inverting.
SmartLoad® was used to acquire and transmit data at 200 Hz, providing suitable data for dynamic measurement.
The data will be used to advise air lift bag users on which breaking strain of line to use.
A quote from the client
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