Trelleborg’s marine and infrastructure operation has been awarded the contract to supply an integrated structural elastomeric bearing system to MISC Offshore (Singapore) Pte Ltd (MOSPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of MISC Berhad (MISC), for its Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) project in South America. This will have a processing capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil and 12 million cubic meters of gas per day.
To meet stringent fatigue design life for the FPSO, an integrated structural elastomeric bearing system capable of enabling modules sitting on the FPSO to handle all forces in all directions, including critical uplift force, was essential. Additionally, it was vital that the system complied with international standards in design and engineering, and was stringently tested with its performance validated to guarantee performance in-situ.
Richard Hepworth, President of Trelleborg’s marine and infrastructure operation, says: “From design to manufacture, fabrication to testing and assembly, Trelleborg’s elastomeric bearing system provides the ideal solution. The award of the contract is a major achievement and is a testament not only to our design and manufacturing expertise, but also our extensive experience of supplying elastomeric bearing systems to FPSO projects across the globe.“
Trelleborg’s elastomeric bearings provide flexible support to equipment modules sitting on the deck of FPSO vessels, allowing alternating movement in all three dimensions and large rotational movements in line with an FPSO’s longitudinal and transversal axes.
Since the elastomers used are maintenance-free, this type of bearing is a more efficient and cost-effective alternative to steel pot bearings when there is a requirement for sagging and hogging effects.
Trelleborg’s engineering teams employ FEA modeling techniques to predict the stress versus strain characteristics and also the fatigue life of bearings. In addition, they examine wave action and the resulting multi-directional loads between a vessel’s hull and its topside modules. This guarantees the bearings can continue to perform in all environmental conditions.
Trelleborg
www.trelleborg.com
Filed Under: Bearings