Ships – Towing or pushing – Submerged object
Patent
1994-01-14
1996-02-06
Sotelo, Jesus D.
Ships
Towing or pushing
Submerged object
B63B 2166
Patent
active
054889200
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a device for handling of cables on seismic vessels on the vessel's after deck, especially the gun arrangement sections, i.e. the gun arrays of gun cables, whereby several gun cables are transferred and stored on the deck, hanging on suspension rails, while the inner section of the cables is wound on to winding drums, where a slip is arranged for deployment/recovery of the cables into/out of the water and where in addition there are normally winch drums for streamer cables on the deck.
The gun arrangement section of the gun cable is usually called a gun array. This term will be used in the following to describe the gun cable's gun arrangement section.
At the present time most seismic surveys at sea are conducted using specially built ships whose after decks are designed for storing and handling the seismic gun cables and detection cables or streamer cables, which constitute the means whereby the seismic surveys are performed. The gun array comprises groups of seismic energy sources which transmit pulses into the water, the reflections from these being intercepted by the detection cables or streamer cables which transmit the signals back to the vessel for processing. Developments in survey methods in recent years have led to the situation where behind the vessel there are now towed a number of gun cables with gun arrays in parallel alongside one another, and several streamer cables are also used for the reception of the reflection signals. The design and construction of the individual elements have also been under constant development in order to improve the signal quality and to increase the vessel's productivity. This development has led to an increase in the amount of equipment, resulting in major problems on board the seismic vessels where, due to the dimensions of this equipment, the available space has become progressively smaller. There is a constant need for maintenance work on the gun arrays, and in addition the gun arrays often have to be reconstructed. There is therefore a great need for improvement in the handling routines and above all in the storage and working facilities on board the vessel.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a solution to these problems.
This object is achieved by the invention with a device of the type mentioned in the introduction, which is characterized by the features in the claims presented.
A natural solution to lack of space on the after deck of a vessel would be to increase the size of the deck and, e.g., to use wider vessels. However, this would be most disadvantageous since the vessel's total dimensions would thereby be increased disproportionally, substantially greater operating expenses would be incurred and the cost of building such ships would also be significantly greater. An extension of the ship's length will not entail any improvement since the cables have to be deployed into the water from the stern area. Another major problem has been the positioning of the winch drums for the streamer cables, which have traditionally been placed right at the after-end of the deck. These have occupied a disproportionate amount of space athwartships, thus making it difficult to move the gun cable past them and leading to a limit on the number of cables for which there was room. At the same time this arrangement has resulted in large areas of dead space behind the streamer drum, space which it has been possible to use as stowage space, but which has not been able to be used for handling of cables and maintenance work. In order to make the best-possible use of the space, a partial solution has been to guide the gun arrays in tracks which are arranged between the streamer drum and the ship's sides, a procedure which has led to the equipment in the deployment/recovery area right at the after end being packed tightly together. One alternative has also been to move the streamer drum to another deck, but this has not been a suitable solution either.
The invention overcomes the abov
REFERENCES:
patent: 4313392 (1982-02-01), Guenther et al.
patent: 4781140 (1988-11-01), Bell et al.
patent: 4798156 (1989-01-01), Langeland et al.
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 9, No. 68, P344.
Geco A. S.
Sotelo Jesus D.
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