27 October 2014
Straightpoint has supplied its 12t Loadlink Plus to UK-based Larkin Eng Services for the load test of a weather station's lifting points that is being used in Europe's first commercial floating offshore wind measurement campaign.
According to the manufacturer, the weather station's lifting points were proof tested to ensure the greatest load that can be applied without straining them beyond the elastic limit.
Safe lifting
This guaranteed the weather station could be safely lifted and transported to the DONG Energy and FLiDAR offshore wind measurement campaign, which is located in the Irish Sea.
Larkin Eng Services was tasked with the need to proof load test the weather station that weighed a total of 6.5t. This ensuring that the station was balanced when deployed by sea, a goal acheived by calculating the safe working load, so it could be lifted safely by the lifting points.
Elsewhere, an additional 25% of the total weight was added to the buoy by adding heavy chains to ensure the working load was safe to lift.
Larkin built a structure to enable the lifting of the equipment from dockside onto a boat while the buoy was then lifted by crane off the boat and also before being lowered into the water.
Straightpoint's technology recorded all the individual test weights, from the individual components, to the overall finished product, as well as the total including the additional test weights.
Accurate readouts
Each individual weighed component was totalled and then compared against the total weight reading, which ensured the accuracy of the readouts from Straightpoint's Handheld Plus system, which links directly to the loadcell.
John Dodgson, senior rigging and inspection engineer at Larkin Engineering Services explains: "I have used Straightpoint's products for many years. With over 1 million GBP-worth of equipment being lifted in this project, we had to get it right first time.
"That's why we chose Straightpoint, as we knew we could rely on the accuracy of their loadcell to safely monitor the load."
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