Hydraulic and earth engineering – Marine structure or fabrication thereof – Floatable to site and supported by marine floor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-10
2001-09-25
Will, Thomas B. (Department: 3673)
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Marine structure or fabrication thereof
Floatable to site and supported by marine floor
C405S209000, C405S204000, C405S203000, C114S264000, C114S265000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293734
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention consists in apparatus for transporting and installing a deck of an offshore oil production platform.
Offshore oil production platforms generally include a deck carrying production equipment and crew's quarters.
The deck is supported by tubular piles or legs driven into the sea floor or resting thereon on shoes.
There are various ways to install this kind of platform at the production site.
The first consists in floating all of the platform to the production site, lowering the legs until they contact the sea floor and then, using the legs as supports, raising the deck above the water to a height such that it is out of reach of the highest waves.
The second installation method consists in first placing the legs on the sea floor and transporting the deck of the platform from the assembly yard to the site on a barge with dimensions compatible with the size of the deck.
The problem is then to transfer the deck from the barge to the upper ends of the legs, because the deck is on a floating body affected by swells and, like the body carrying it, is subject to a continuous orbital motion the amplitude of which depends on the height of the swell.
What is more, the deck has a very high mass, possibly several thousand ton, which does not facilitate transferring the deck.
The barge carrying the deck is placed between the legs of the platform and the deck is transferred from the barge to the legs of the platform either by ballasting the barge or by lifting equipment on the barge.
Ballasting the barge is a lengthy operation which takes several hours and the height to which the deck is raised is small, which means that this method cannot be used to install the deck at places where heavy seas may be experienced because it will not be at a sufficient height to be out of reach of the highest waves.
Raising the deck by means of jacks has the main drawback that jacks are sensitive to lateral forces, making it necessary to install protection and guide structures that add to the weight of the equipment installed on the barge.
Moreover, the travel of jacks is limited.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention aims to remedy the drawbacks of the prior art apparatus by proposing apparatus for transporting and installing an oil platform deck that is designed to enable the deck to be raised through a great height, in the order of 10 to 20 meters, and saves a considerable amount of time.
The invention therefore consists in apparatus for transporting and installing a deck of an offshore oil production platform, of the type comprising a floating barge adapted to support the deck and provided with a means or system for moving the deck between a position resting on the barge and a position resting on the legs of the platform, characterised in that the appartus includes a support framework for the deck adapted to be placed on the barge and including the means for moving the deck in the form of at least one rack that can be moved vertically by a drive mechanism.
According to other features of the invention:
the support framework comprises at least one top beam and at least one bottom beam connected together by spacers and extending transversely relative to the axis of the barge, the beams supporting at each end a rack and a drive mechanisms,
the lengths of the beams can be adjusted to modify the distance between the racks,
the rack is formed by a plate having a series of teeth on each of its lateral faces and the drive mechanism comprises at least two opposed combinations each formed of a motor associated with at least one gearbox driving an output gear cooperating with one of the series of teeth of the rack,
the combination of each drive mechanism is mounted in a structure connected to the beams by impact-absorbing units,
the rack has an impact-absorbing shoe at its upper end,
the apparatus includes a connecting means (or connecting device) for connecting the rack to the deck of the platform which can be disconnected after ballasting the barge,
the connecting means comprise a rod one end of which is connected to the rack and the other end of which is connected to the deck, the rod having a portion of small cross section adapted to break at a particular load,
the connecting means comprise a rod one end of which is connected to a rack or the deck and the other end of which is connected to the deck or a rack, respectively, by at least one locking member that can be moved transversely relative to the axis of the rod and is operated by an actuator unit,
the locking unit is formed by a finger adapted to cooperate with a groove in the rod,
the finger is wedge-shaped and the groove has a cross section of complementary shape to the finger, and
the actuator unit is a jack.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3138932 (1964-06-01), Kofahl et al.
patent: 3727414 (1973-04-01), Davies
patent: 3797256 (1974-03-01), Giblon
patent: 4007914 (1977-02-01), Sutton
patent: 4015434 (1977-04-01), Tarrant
patent: 4161376 (1979-07-01), Armstrong
patent: 4203576 (1980-05-01), Sutton
patent: 4242011 (1980-12-01), Karsan et al.
patent: 4252468 (1981-02-01), Blight
patent: 4252469 (1981-02-01), Blight et al.
patent: 4255069 (1981-03-01), Yielding
patent: 4329088 (1982-05-01), Lucas
patent: 4382718 (1983-05-01), Inoue et al.
patent: 4411408 (1983-10-01), Radovan et al.
patent: 4436454 (1984-03-01), Ninet et al.
patent: 4482272 (1984-11-01), Colin
patent: 4512553 (1985-04-01), Dunham et al.
patent: 4556004 (1985-12-01), Lamy et al.
patent: 4607982 (1986-08-01), Brasted et al.
patent: 4627767 (1986-12-01), Field et al.
patent: 4655641 (1987-04-01), Weyler
patent: 4657437 (1987-04-01), Breeden
patent: 4662788 (1987-05-01), Kypke et al.
patent: 4848967 (1989-07-01), Weyler
patent: 4930938 (1990-06-01), Rawstron et al.
patent: 5139367 (1992-08-01), Ingle
patent: 5219451 (1993-06-01), Datta et al.
patent: 5290128 (1994-03-01), Yeargain et al.
patent: 5403124 (1995-04-01), Kocaman et al.
patent: 5522680 (1996-06-01), Hoss et al.
patent: 5799603 (1998-09-01), Tellington
patent: 5975806 (1999-11-01), Delamatyr
patent: 6030148 (2000-02-01), Tormala et al.
patent: 936005 (1973-10-01), None
patent: 0070212 (1985-04-01), None
Oudin Jean-Christophe
Thomas Pierre-Armand
Pechhold Alexandra K
Technip France
Wenderoth , Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
Will Thomas B.
LandOfFree
Apparatus for transporting and installing a deck of an... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus for transporting and installing a deck of an..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus for transporting and installing a deck of an... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2536956