Engineering firm Pryme Group said Wednesday it had launched two specialist tooling systems - Pile Fixation Tool (PFT) and PileProp - for offshore wind installations, via Caley Ocean Systems.
The company said the tools were designed to support the installation of monopile and jacket foundations for offshore wind, by providing a localized, rigid deflection constraint - and in the case of the PileProp system - independent of vessel interaction or station - before the critical grouting process of securing the foundations.
Pyme Group described the Pile Fixation Tool as a monopile foundation installation support solution, designed to address the stabilizing issues involved with monopile foundations being placed in pre-drilled boreholes, due to challenging seabed conditions.
"This proven technology has been used to support DEME with the foundation installation on the St Nazaire offshore wind farm," Pryme Group said Wednesday. Interestingly, the offshore wind farm, France's first commercial project of the kind, became fully operational on Wednesday, too.
As for the PileProp tool, Pryme Group designed it to help secure the fixing of jacket foundations over pre-installed pile pins.
This solution was created to meet DNV Regulation ST-0126, which recommended limiting movement in all planes to 1 mm before grouting. P
PileProp is currently being deployed in support of foundation installation work on St Brieuc offshore wind farm, also in France, with Caley’s client, Ailes Marines, being the developer.
These systems were developed as part of Caley’s collaboration with engineering design specialists Houlder, which covers a wide range of engineering design and installation tooling for offshore wind farm projects.
"Both tooling systems minimise early age cycling and reduce weather and wave limitations to installation. This results in minimized downtime due to severe conditions, therefore lengthening the installation window, increasing efficiency and speed of the installation process, limiting risk of early failure of grouting and reducing initial project and through life costs," Pryme Group said.