Pipe handling on a drilling vessel: safe cable guidance with E4.1 energy chains

Robust but lightweight e-chains for horizontal and vertical cable guidance on drilling rigs

For these two offshore applications, the pipe handling cable guidance needed a permanent solution. Because the large number of energy and data cables and hydraulic lines to be guided also resulted in a high weight load, the cable guidance had to not only exhibit high strength, but also have a low dead weight. Since then, several E4.1 series plastic energy chains have been used on drilling vessels. They allow horizontal drill pipe handling for such applications as equipping the fingerboard and operating the top drive.

Profile

What was needed: E4.1 series energy chains
Requirements: A large number of heavy cables must be moved horizontally and vertically. The cable guidance system's dead weight was to be low.
Industry: Offshore
Success for the customer: The E4.1 e-chain is used for the horizontal and vertical travels. Since the energy chain is made of plastic, its dead weight is comparatively low. Nevertheless, it is robust and can also guide even heavy hydraulic lines without any problem.

Problem

Pipe handling equipment – onshore or offshore – requires a wide range of energy and data cables and hydraulic lines. Because these cables and lines also have a high dead weight, the primary requirement of energy supply solutions is that they be robust and therefore not susceptible to incidents or even failures. In offshore drilling rigs in particular, all cables should be bundled as tightly as possible to save space on the drilling vessel and ensure a safe operating environment.
Finally, the dead weight of the cable guidance system should also be low in order to reduce the drive energy required to move the system.
In these two applications, cable guidance solutions were to be found on drilling vessels for the pipe racker systems that travel both horizontally on deck and vertically along the rig. The cables supply the pipe handling equipment, which is responsible for such tasks as horizontal drill pipe handling, equipping the fingerboard, and operating the top drive.

Solution

The two offshore applications turned out to be perfect for our E4.1 series energy chains. The plastic energy chains were primarily designed for high robustness, so that even a large number of heavy lines, such as hydraulic lines, can be guided inside them without any problems. In the case of the vertically moving e-chain, the low dead weight of the cable guidance system is also of especially great benefit to the operator.
For the energy chain moving horizontally on deck, on the other hand, the E4.1 was designed as a multiband e-chain®. Special separators ensure a secure hold and additional system strength and can easily move even high additional loads.

Learn more about our E4.1 energy chains