Plastic energy chain for safe cable guidance on a 2000HP jack-up rig

Profile

• What was needed: E4.1 series energy chains
• Requirements: On a jack-up rig, a strong, fail-safe solution was needed for cable guidance for the cantilever and drill floor skid. Since there was little installation space, the solution was also to be as space-saving as possible.
• Industry: Oil and gas
• Success for the customer: E4.1 energy chains created a fail-safe, maintenance-free cable guidance system. With its reinforced extender crossbar design, the e-chain safely guides the heavy cable packages. And the low support distance ensures safe guidance for cables of all diameters.

Emphasis on robustness: Designed as a strong extension link chain, the plastic E4.1 energy chain ensures reliable cable guidance on the drilling vessel.

Problem

Jack-up rigs are used as modular drilling rigs (MDRs) to transport additional drilling equipment to fixed drilling platforms. Once at the drilling site, the drilling vessel's legs extend to the seabed and provide support to then raise the drilling floor to the level of the drilling platform. A cantilever is positioned above the drilling site, and drilling can begin.
For this jack-up rig, suitable cable guidance to the cantilever and the drill floor was sought during the planning stage. The solution had to bear the high additional cable load continuously and without failure. The installation also required a system that was as space-saving as possible. The tight installation space required compact but secure bundling of all cables.

Solution

High additional loads, robust cable guidance, and compact installation. With these requirements, the manufacturer started looking – and found the solution in our E4.1 series energy chains. The 800 and E4.112 versions are used. The particularly robust cable guidance systems from the heavy duty range were chosen due to the large, heavy cable packages. To move safely with loads, they were designed as extension link chains, that is, as a reinforced system. The low support distance for both systems also means that all cable diameters can be safely guided. This is ultimately reflected in a fail-safe, maintenance-free system.

One requirement for using the e-chain in the rig was that it move the heavy cable weight safely over the long term.

The large energy chain is clearly visible on the side of the cantilever. It moves with the drill floor skid.