Norway -headquartered international marine technology company Kongsberg has announced that its motion compensated, integrated Walk-to-Work gangway system will be installed on Olympic Shipping’s windfarm Multipurpose Offshore Vessel ‘Olympic Orion’.
Designed to significantly increase efficiency and safety for Walk-to-Work duties, K-Walk will be integrated with the advanced Kongsberg Information Management System (K-IMS) and the existing K-Pos Dynamic Positioning system on board Olympic Orion, which will be upgraded as part of the installation in the latter half of 2017.
Olympic Orion will utilise the innovative K-Walk solution following its launch as part of Kongsberg’s new Integration Strategy in autumn 2016. The system takes a new approach to increasing productivity and efficiency for Walk-to-Work vessels by improving operability of key systems on board. In addition to full integration with K-IMS to enable mission and route planning for increased service capability within a wind farm, the system interconnects with the dynamic positioning (DP) and a planning station. The system extends vessel availability by increasing the operational weather window.
Through integrated mission planning, automated vessel manoeuvring and gangway hook-up, Kongsberg claims that K-Walk introduces a step-change for increasing efficiency and productivity of the Walk-to-Work operations that are integral to Wind Farm Construction and Maintenance projects. While providing a completely safe, motion compensated gangway for the fast transfer of personnel and materials, integration enables more efficient approach and settlement at wind turbines and more effective logistics. The system is activated prior to entering a wind turbine’s safety zone, reducing vessel speed and launching the K-Walk hook up process during approach. Because of the integration with the DP, the gangway is able to move into position while the vessel is still moving, positioning it safely as the vessel arrives on station.
The integration of K-Walk with K-IMS is a unique approach that enables in-depth mission planning, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency by finding the most preferred route for increased service capability within the wind farm. The system will be fully connected with Olympic Orion’s DP system, offering increased operability with a new condition based operator environment, which requires less manpower and has minimal training requirements.The K-Walk solution for Olympic Orion will also improve time for mobility and safety with an integrated lift system for transfer of people and goods, including electric trolleys (under design) for movement of pallets across the gangway. Overall, K-Walk significantly enhances operational time efficiency, which improves productivity with the ability to serve more wind turbines within the same time frame.
“We see a potential to install this integrated Gangway solution on board several of our existing vessels in order to provide W2W services into an expanding and interesting market segment,” said Bjørn Kvalsund, COO, Olympic Subsea.
By Jake Frith
