Offshore rope trick

With the recent completion in Johor, Malaysia, of the first phase of its new $100 million wire rope manufacturing plant, Kiswire believes it is now well placed to deal with the greater demands made of such products as the offshore industry moves into ever-deeper waters.

Bert de Ruijter, Netherlands-based Kiswire Europe managing director, says the group delivered 100,000 tons of offshore ropes last year, including regular 6 x 36 engineering ropes, 8-strand crane and dredging ropes, multi-strand crane and subsea hoisting ropes and spiral strands. The new Neptune 2 (N2) facility in Malaysia, which shares a loadout jetty with customer Technip's Asiaflex flexpipe production facility, will bring more specialization and efficiency to the Kiswire offshore rope production line, says de Ruijter.

The N2 facility will bring more specialization and efficiency to the Kiswire offshore rope production line. Bert de Ruijter

A 340 ton wire rope reel at the new Neptune 2 facility in Johor. Inset: N2 hyrope cutaway.

The company now lays claim to being able to deliver the most sophisticated types of wire rope in diameters ranging from 10mm to 180mm and in units of 600te each. Multi-strand non-rotating wire rope production in 600te units so big they require 10m x 10m reels is the kind of duty being specified for a new generation of vessels targeting ultradeepwater construction work, notes de Ruijter. That is the requirement in the market that we see for the next 10 to 20 years, and it's all subsea driven. The Johor plant's new and larger multi-strand rope capability will enable the company to cover just about anything that is required or being done in the offshore oil & gas industry, he adds.

Kiswire operates two major R&D centres, employing about 100 engineers. The company lays claim to being the world's largest high carbon wire drawer and, according to Bert de Ruijter, produces wires with unrivalled tensile strength/ductility/minimum breaking force ratio.

Our policy is to produce all ordered products tailor made, at least we have that ability, explains de Ruijter. Whereas, the competition has to comply with market standards, we can design and produce a wire rope precisely to the requirements of the application. Our tensile grades do not run from the market standards 1770, 1960 to 2160 grades, but we can make a 1960 grade or 2000, 2025, 2060, 2100 up to 2500N/m2. All wires drawn by Kiswire are a function of the end product's required specifications. OE