Ropemaker Bridon is hailing the £10 million closer being installed at its new Neptune Quay facility in the UK as ‘the world’s biggest machine for the manufacture of steel wire ropes’. Targeting today’s more challenging offshore sector applications in particular, the machine – from German engineering company Sket – will facilitate the production of larger and more complex ropes in package weights of up to 650te.
The closer, the eight-basket section of which will be the first element installed at the plant, will allow the manufacture of offshore ropes specifically engineered to deal with the challenges of deepwater deployment under tough environmental conditions.
Describing the oil & gas industry’s changing demands as a key driver behind the construction of its new Newcastle site, Bridon explained: ‘Whilst the historical challenge of deepwater deployment has been to deploy 300te in 3000m of water, the industry is increasingly demanding lifting systems that can deploy weights significantly in excess of 300te and as great as 600te at depths of up to 4000m – requiring multistrand ropes that boast massive breaking loads, optimised bend fatigue performance, effective lubrication, and minimal rotation under load.’
Neptune Quay will also boast a new stranding machine, also made by Sket, and an innovative take-up stand, commissioned from Pipe Coil Technology, to help ease the loadout of wire rope reels of all sizes onto vessels moored at the factory’s deepwater quayside. ‘The closer, strander, and takeup stand at Bridon Neptune Quay are not only the largest rope making machines in existence; they also have the capacity to make the most complex and highly engineered ropes ever conceived,’ declared Bridon Group CEO Jon Templeman.
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