Cable Buoyancy Aid Mounting With Automated Separation and Clamping
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Solution Overview
Problem
The installation of buoyancy aids on offshore cables is time-consuming and poses health and safety risks due to manual intervention on construction vessels, requiring large reels and considerable space.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus with a movable frame, support cradle, and drive system that separates and secures buoyancy aid portions onto an elongate line, minimizing manual handling through automated processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If buoyancy aids are clamped onto the cable manually after the cable is reeled off a storage reel, then the cable can be deployed with proper buoyancy configuration, but the operation is time-consuming and increases installation costs
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the cable's own movement through the rollers as the driving force to automatically advance the buoyancy aid along the cable, eliminating the need for external reels or manual handling. The buoyancy aid is fed through the rollers and clamped onto the cable automatically as the cable passes through the system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical reel system with a roller-based mechanism that uses friction and gravity to feed and position the buoyancy aid. The rollers guide the buoyancy aid along the cable and into the clamping position without requiring large storage reels or complex mechanical handling systems.
2Device complexity
If manual intervention is required to clamp buoyancy aids onto the cable, then the operation can be performed with simple equipment, but health-and-safety risks increase due to manual intervention in high-risk areas
Solution Approach 1:
The clamping mechanism automatically secures the buoyancy aid to the cable without requiring operators to manually handle the cable or buoyancy aid in hazardous deck areas. The system performs the clamping operation autonomously as the cable passes through the rollers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the hazardous manual handling operations from the installation process by implementing an automated system that positions and clamps buoyancy aids without human intervention in high-risk areas. Only minimal monitoring and control functions require operator presence.
3Reliability
If large reels are used to store and deploy cable with buoyancy aids, then the cable can be managed during deployment, but considerable space is required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the large reel storage system with a linear roller-based feeding mechanism. The buoyancy aid is fed through the rollers along the length of the cable, eliminating the need for large-diameter reels and reducing the space required for cable storage and deployment operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from radial reel storage to linear roller-based feeding, changing the spatial dimension of cable and buoyancy aid management from circular/reel-based to linear/track-based, thereby reducing the footprint and space requirements for the deployment operation.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for mounting a buoyancy aid on an elongate line. The buoyancy aid includes a separable first and second portion which enable the buoyancy aid to be mounted on the elongate line. The apparatus includes a movable frame, a support cradle and an opening arrangement mounted on the frame, and a drive system. The first and second portions are placeable on the support cradle. The opening arrangement includes a gripper which grips whichever of the first or second portion placed on the support cradle is uppermost. The drive system moves the frame between a loading position where the buoyancy aid is placeable on the support cradle and an installation position, and to move the opening arrangement and/or the support cradle relative to the frame so that, when the gripper grips the uppermost first portion or second portion on the support cradle, the first portion separates from the second portion.