Wind Energy – Specialist Tooling Systems
Pryme Group, an engineering collective that designs solutions for global industrial markets, has launched two specialist tooling systems for offshore wind installations, via Caley Ocean Systems.
Pile Fixation Tool (PFT) and PileProp are designed to support the installation of monopile and jacket foundations for offshore wind, by providing a localized, rigid deflection constraint, prior to the critical grouting process of securing the foundations.
PFT is a bespoke 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.
PileProp was designed to help secure jacket foundations fixed over pre-installed pile pins. This solution was designed to comply to DNV regulation ST-0126, which advised minimizing movement in all planes to 1 mm, prior to grouting.
These systems were developed as part of Caley’s collaboration with engineering design specialists Houlder, which covers a range of engineering design and installation tooling for offshore wind farm projects.
Both tooling systems minimize 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.
