Oil and Gas

With a length of 382 meters and a width of 124 meters, the Allseas Pioneering Spirit is the largest working vessel in the world. Pioneering Spirit has been specially developed to lift large offshore platforms up to 48,000 tons from their anchors (“cylinder jacket”) and to lift up to 20,000 tons of mooring standing on the seabed. The platforms can thus be transported in one piece and can be dismantled, for example, on land instead of at sea. This significantly reduces the work involved in installing and removing drilling platforms.
At the front of this gigantic work vessel is a massive inclined beam system called the Jacket Lift System (JLS), which consists of 16 inflatable hydraulic beams called the “Top Lift System” (TLS) that can lift the platform, and at the rear, multiple cranes to raise the foundations. TR-Electronic safety encoders are safely used in lifting and handling equipment to monitor the operation of these lifting systems.
The extended position of TLS is observed from the lift beam. In addition to the regular control and monitoring system, hardware and software engineers at Allseas have developed a completely independent safety system with the help of a PROFIsafe safety PLC and TR-Electronic safety encoders; here the beam can be moved, for which a safe position is programmed with a lift. If a lifting beam exceeds these safety values despite all precautions, a safety PLC intervenes and stops the movement immediately.
With the JLS, for example, the position of the lifting frame and the speed at which the lifting load rises or falls are continuously monitored by TR-Electronic safety encoders. A safe speed at which the lifted load can move is programmed in the safety PLC, which works completely independently from normal control. If the lifting load moves faster than the set safety values, the safety system intervenes here as well.
TR-Electronic introduced the first certified PROFIsafe safety encoder in 2009 and has been at the forefront of new developments in the market for safety encoders ever since.
The SIL3 / PLe certified safety encoders used by Allseas are currently the most compact optical PROFIsafe encoders on the market, with a housing diameter of only 58 mm.
TR-Electronic will always work to contribute to the safe interoperability of man and machine.