ITT and Servi Hydranor design system to absorb shock during resupply of North Sea drilling platform

Tuesday, 1 Jul 2014

BAD KÖNIG, Germany – July 1, 2014 – ITT Corporation's (NYSE: ITT) Control Technologies business has partnered with Servi Hydranor AS, Norway's largest distributor of hydraulic and hydraulic-related products, to engineer a shock and vibration isolation system for protecting cargo transferred from ships to the Norwegian oil company Statoil's Gudrun Platform in the North Sea's Gudrun field.

The Gudrun Platform, which was built by Aibel AS, operates cranes for around-the-clock cargo handling. As the crane operators hoist supplies from ships to the platform, containers (some weighing as much as 8,000 kg) move toward the Gudron Platform at speeds of up to 3 m/sec. The ITT-Servi Hydranor system, part of a barrier engineered by Aibel AS for the Gudrun Platform, includes highly tuned dampers that absorb the cargo's kinetic energy.

"Moving equipment from a supply ship onto an offshore platform in difficult conditions requires a highly engineered system of shocks and dampers," said Tomm Kuran, sales manager for Pneumatics at Servi Hydranor AS. "The Gudrun's crane operators are moving food as well as heavy and expensive equipment for drilling. If an operator mishandles a container, people can be hurt or equipment can be destroyed."

Aibel came to Servi Hydranor, an ISO 9001 certified company, and ITT early in the design process for the Gudron Platform with a set of specifications (including environmental conditions) and space limitations. While offshore rig builders are experienced at stabilizing cranes, Aibel understood there were challenges for designing a dampening system for its cargo barrier. Engineers were focused on helping crane operators safely pick and place cargo aboard the Gudrun Platform. Servi Hydranor and ITT completed the shock and isolation design work last year, and the Gudrun Platform is now in the Gudrun oil field off the coast of Norway.   
 
"ITT specializes in working with key partners like Servi Hydranor to engineer customized solutions for some of the most demanding applications in the world," said Munish Nanda, president of ITT's Control Technologies business. "We apply our engineering expertise to protect our customers' systems and structures, so they can achieve their goals."

"A mishandled container can cause damage to its contents or the platform itself, which could halt drilling operations," said Peter Bauer, managing director for ITT Control Technologies EMEA GmbH. "We're able to customize and recommend engineering systems for projects like the Gudron Platform because we have experience with energy absorption technology for manufacturing, robotics, conveyors and overhead crane applications worldwide."