Global connectvity for optmising ofshore equipment

MOTION-COMPENSATED GANGWAYS AND CRANES ARE BECOMING COMMON PRACTICE IN THE OFFSHORE INDUSTRY, ENABLING A SAFE AND SWIFT TRANSFER OF CREW AND CARGO AT SEA IN ALMOST ALL WEATHER CONDITIONS.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF SMST EQUIPMENT.

Although the gangways and cranes prove to be very useful at sea, it is good to at all tmes be aware of their technical conditon. SMST, a worldwide supplier of ofshore equipment, has developed a soluton in which the company can keep an eye on equipment wherever at sea, 24/7 and 365 days per year.

“Moton-compensated gangways and cranes are complex structures embodying many technical disciplines that all need to work together in the right way”, Menno de Jong, Sales Manager at SMST, says. He contnues, “We have everything in house to develop, design, construct, install, and service this type of equipment, and our customers and suppliers thus consider us a mult-discipline partner. Together with them, we always strive for the most optmal cost of ownership. It is not just about the cost of buying a system. The operatng costs are also important. Of course, at an ofshore wind farm, the most important aspect is to keep the turbine running. To do so, it is important to have the whole supply chain working well. In the last few years, a lot of progression has been made in the industry, and at SMST many steps have also been taken to improve our equipment and the knowledge for the right predicton of maintenance.”

BOOTH NO. 1.115B

OFFSHORE ENERGY AMSTERDAM

Mr De Jong contnues, “The more we can learn from the equipment we have sold or rented out, the more accurate we can decide on the optmal design and maintenance of our systems. For this reason, we have developed a smart local data system that can remotely keep the company connected with all the units in the feld. New units are provided with this system that contnuously collects informaton. These local data systems can also be installed on existng units as an upgrade. With permission from the customer, we can read the data any tme we want via a remote access system. With the collected data we are amassing a large amount of informaton about the behaviour of a system as a whole and the materials and parts used. This helps us to take proper actons whenever needed, not only with respect to preventve maintenance, but also in the constructon of new units. We hereby help our customers all over the world to keep their equipment running at all tmes.

According to Mr De Jong, another smart connectvity system will soon be implemented at a Taiwanese ofshore windfarm. “For the SOV that will be used for O&M services,” he elaborates, “we supplied an access cargo tower with >>

a moton-compensated gangway and crane. Our mindset has always been to constantly look for improvement. Things can always be made beter. This is a widespread credo within our organisaton.” The contnuous development of SMST’s equipment is already appreciated by several partes in the ofshore market. The highly fexible systems are designed and built with a modular vision and can be deployed in various markets and applicatons. Mr De Jong sees ample opportunites in the oil & gas market. “Apart from the ofshore wind market, oil & gas operators and contractors too are in the market for our systems. Now that ofshore wind has turned into a mature market, it is interestng to see that oil & gas operators and contractors are picking up developments from the ofshore wind industry, whereas it used to be the other way around. For them, the use of moton-compensated cranes and gangways for entering platorms is a safe and efcient soluton.”

Mr De Jong concludes, “One of our strengths is that we want to keep everything in our own hands. We develop, design, construct, and maintain. On top of this, by means of a high-end soluton, we remotely monitor equipment all over the world, 24/7. We hence act as a reliable all-round partner for our customers to make their operatons successful.”