Pipelay Vessel Apache.

[runnach]

Appointment this morning with a client based in Leith Docks. Apache is in for some maintenance, headed there to take a few pics after meeting of a cracking piece of technology, albeit the Apache has a few years under her hull now and, certainly puts Archimedes law to the test!

Stern pic with guy in view, centre is pipe clamp (vert rollers) that hold pipe when spooling on/off. Same pic, but within the sloping structure, is where welding takes place when required, apparently TIG root/MMA fill & Cap.

Unfortunately I couldn't wing it aboard

 

[madkayaker]

that is some piece of kit! I think it subsea7 that have a video of one of them working

 

[Sparkey]

Awesome pics, runnach!
any chance we could see the welding they do there?

 

[runnach]

Unfortunately no chance Tulip. When maint work is complete, vessel is heading to Invergordon to spool pipe, then head off to Holland actually, gas pipe line. Also any hot work is done at sea, pipe is welded prior to spooling onto vessel.

Heres one in action..................

 

[madkayaker]

left a bit
right a bit
CRUNCH

 

[runnach]

left a bit
right a bit
CRUNCH

Dynamically Positioned Vessel with more thrusters all round that you can shake a stick at.................no chance!!

 

[madkayaker]

depends on the 15 year old that programmed it!

 

[Sparkey]

left a bit
right a bit
CRUNCH

lol, but it was funny...

 

[rtbcomp]

left a bit
right a bit
CRUNCH

Or for those of a certain age,

Left hand down a bit
Left hand down a bit it is sir!
Oh Lummy!

 

[Shug]

That things been floating about in the dock for months now.
Must have needed a whole lotta urgent maintenance. Not exactly a shipyard its tied up in.

 

[drjim]

I like this machine!

How big is the pipe it spools, and how does it bend enough to fit on the spool??

 

[wannabewelder]

Or for those of a certain age,

Left hand down a bit
Left hand down a bit it is sir!
Oh Lummy!

You wouldn't be on the W/T by any chance? ......
........Oh nasty...

Wannabewelder

 

[runnach]

I like this machine!

How big is the pipe it spools, and how does it bend enough to fit on the spool??

I haven't viewed spooling to date, I do know tho, pipe goes through a set of rolls like device when spooling on, spooling off is the reverse. Apparently it is very very very rare for a weld to fail while under stress of spooling.

Pipe diametor varies, when I popped into SS7 Leith spoolbase around mid summer last year, there were exemplers of various pipe diametors on display fixed to a wall, a fair range from say around 50mm to 600mm, I've no idea what the max dia is??

 

[runnach]

That things been floating about in the dock for months now.
Must have needed a whole lotta urgent maintenance. Not exactly a shipyard its tied up in.

I'm rarely doon Leith since the cooncil banned the safe zone, so no idea how long the Apache has been laid up.

Obviously maint work does not require shipyard treatment, pleanty local biz vans were at least making a crust today.

 

[Shug]

I'm sure its been there since late last year.
Usually a warship of some description kicking about where it is. Can sometimes see the aerials n stuff from my living room window.

 

[Wedg1e]

I've been on a couple of big boats (other than ferries!) - Solitaire and the Maersk Curlew, doing video inspections of inaccessible bits!

In the case of Curlew it was the fire pumps. They were mounted in fireproof housings on the deck and were designed to be the last things working right up to the point the ship melted. The sucked up seawayer from the keel and fed it to sprinklers and foam generators throughout the ship.
What happened was that when the units were installed (mounted on their own chassi that was welded or bolted to the deck), there was one elbow to install between the pump intake and a flange protrudng through the deck. The issue was that the pump makers wouldn't honour the warranty if, on first test, some debris was sucked in to the pump. As the flange cover was anything but secure there was every probability that Tom, Dick and Harry had been dropping fag ends, nuts, bolts and monkey wrenches down the pipe for 6 months. To be certain that there was nothing in there, I had to drop a small-bore camera on the end of 60m of GRP rod down the pipe. Unfortunately the pipe had so many twists and turns that the camera was in danger of getting stuck after 15m so I had to pull out and could only offer the reassurance that the first few yards were definitely clear!
To the best of my knowledge Curlew sailed with the firepumps still untested as nobody dared make the decision to press the start button.

Solitaire was the biggest boat that ever sat in the Tyne. I stood on the helideck and looked down at the Tonka toys parked on the quayside
The issue there was that the ship (an FPSO - Floating Production, Storage, and Offtake vessel) would be powered by gas - as it's free with the oil you're pumping out of the seabed! To do this they had two generators powered by gas turbines (think jet engines from a plane, mounted in a soundproof Portakabin). The lube oil for the bearings was contained in the base of the 'skid' that they were built on; the sump was about 2 feet deep with internal baffles but - and here's the daft bit - with no man-access. The oil was cooled by external heat-exchangers, all the piping for which had sat around on the quayside getting full of shotblast, paint and god-knows what and was then installed without being cleaned out.
On start-up, the engines were turned over by hydraulics or compressed air and the oil pressure monitored. At the same time optical devices monitored the lube oil for cleanliness. Once all was in order, the gas would turn on and (metaphorically) someone lit a match. Unfortunately the first time they tried to light the engines the oil flushed all the debris into the sumps, the sensors told the computer the oil was contaminated and the engines shut down and stayed shut down. Although they'd pumped the oil out, the debris stayed in the sumps, trapped in the corners of the baffles and with no man-access they couldn't send the teaboy in with a rag. I poked cameras in and we found paint, sandblast media, bits of welding wire, gloves and christ-knows what else.
I had to stand in front of a posse of top brass and tell them their ship was sh*gged
In the end they resolved the problem by calling in a firm who connected high-volume pumps, filters and heaters to the lube circuit and flushed the system non-stop for a week... in fact I think it was longer... until the computer was eventually happy to light the gas...

 

[chrisg3103]

on a nautical theme here is some big welding from a dry dock in about 2006 i think. the European Causeway at birkenhead, i was one of the cadets about at the time

the stabilser seal surface needed built up with weld and remachined, the entire stabiliser was taken off and fitted to one of the biggest lathes still running in the uk! its huge

for scale look at the size of the chair

here is the other stabiliser still on the ship

and some more nautical welding

the rudders were shot, there supposed to be hollow watertight structures to help reduce load on the thrust surfaces in the rudder stock and steering gear. when the dock was drained they didnt need to undo the drain plugs to check for leaks, water was pouring out of them turns ot the cavitation from the props had erroded the leading edge. so stainless strips were welded on to try and reinforce them

 

[madkayaker]

good stuff like the lathe!

 

[madkayaker]

is that nose partly off?

 

[chrisg3103]

itsa a RORO, the bow door was partialy open for access. spoilt a good picture