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Geosea increase turbine installation safety

By: Lewis Holdsworth 12/03/2015 Geosea

Equipment General Turbines

The first Boom Lock© was completed in January, consequently installed on GeoSea’s Neptune, and has undergone its final performance trials last weekend. During these tests in stormy conditions at the REBO site in the port of Ostend the Boom Lock© actually outperformed the design specs by keeping a 6MW-turbine blade steady in wind gusts of up to 20 m/s.

These tests were witnessed by different independent parties, including marine warranty surveyors and turbine manufacturers. Furthermore the movements of the hoisted loads were monitored and recorded by engineers of the University of Leuven, allowing High Wind quantifiable and undisputable proof of the Boom Lock© benefits. Following the successful trials, GeoSea will now use the Boom Lock© in its future wind turbine installation and maintenance projects.

The Boom Lock© is a system that is mounted on an offshore crane, and is designed to control the movement of the crane hook and the payload in such a way that installation time can be drastically reduced. This will result both in considerable cost savings under the form of reduced cost for installation vessels, installation crews and related costs, as well as increased income due to earlier completion of the wind farms.

Most importantly however, the use of the Boom Lock© will seriously increase safety during the installation of the wind turbines as the heavy payloads’ uncontrolled movements in windy conditions will be dramatically reduced.

Johan Heiler, General Manager of High Wind, commented on the completion of the development: “We are very proud to have completed such a challenging development with many parties involved and many interfaces in such a short period. We are also very pleased to have it ready for our first client at the start of the new installation season”.

Although initially developed specifically for the offshore wind installation and maintenance market, other critical lifting operations could also benefit from the increased safety and uptime guaranteed by the Boom Lock©.

The Boom Lock© was developed by a consortium of companies with vast experience in complementary fields such as offshore contracting, engineering, lifting and steel construction. The Flemish Government has supported this breakthrough development by investing in High Wind through its participation fund TINA which invests in “Factories of the Future”.

The Boom Lock© is currently in use and the solution is available for all contractors, crane operators and other interested parties as of today.

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Geosea increase turbine installation safety

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