In a diverse marketplace, manufacturers of winches for the oil and gas sector are increasingly offering tailored solutions for customers, reports Tom Woerndl.

The oil and gas sector has experienced a turbulent few years: a report from management consultancy company PwC said the market should be “optimistic but extremely cautious” in 2017, and that message is being echoed at the start of the New Year.

“Our offshore winches are usually more compact and provided with a higher standard of coating—compared to onshore versions— to be more durable in a tough environment, while these products are also sold with a greater level of spares and certificates.”

Another company that stresses the custom-built nature of its lifting technology is Austrian knuckleboom and marine crane manufacturer Palfinger. “Our cranes are usually tailor-made based on customer requests,” says Florian Hoffmann, product owner for marine cranes at the company, which is headquartered in Salzburg.

In the oil and gas sector, the company supplies winches that are used for submersing underwater production facilities, although it is able to meet a wide array of customer demands, selling products to markets as diverse as offshore wind and the aquatic salmon farming industry.

“Winches installed on our cranes are primarily used as a lifting tool and their key features depend largely on the type of final application,” explains Hoffmann. “Whilst some clients demand the highest reliability over many years of operation, others may expect high working speed, to maximise capacity.

“The benefits of our winches also depend on what our customer requires. This could be a large hoisting capacity, very fast hoisting speeds, constant tensioning, or active heave compensation.”

In terms of the difference between offshore and onshore winches, like Emcé, Palfinger says that the size of a winch may change, dependent on application, while paint levels and corrosion protection will be higher for an offshore product.

“Due to the merger of Palfinger Marine and Harding Safety and the weak marine, oil and gas market in the last years, we have focused our efforts on creating new internal standards and tools, rather than launching a new product line during this time,” continues Hoffmann.

“However we have recently been preparing to launch a new generation of marine and offshore cranes, which will be released continuously over the next few years.”

Current projects for the company include work for an offshore German customer, which has installed a winch that features functionality for shallow water cable laying. According to Palfinger, the winch is used to actively maintain the tension of the subsea cable and absorb wave motion, which cannot be handled by the installed passive cable tensioners.

“To achieve this functionality, we include a rope force measurement, position monitoring and a motion compensation control system,” notes Hoffmann.

“When the system is activated by the operator, the measured cable tension is held constant by small movements of the winch drum that compensate external factors and prevent the valuable subsea cable from snapping.” A HELPING HAND

As well as the array of powered winches available, companies like The Netherlands-based Gebuwin supply hand-operated winches used in the oil and gas sector.

“Our hand winches are primarily used as a hoisting and pulling tool for low frequency use: either for maintenance or in an emergency,” says Alan Siertsema, project manager at Gebuwin, which sells about a quarter of its winches to the oil and gas market.

As well as being of high quality, Siertsema claims that its hand-operated winches are more affordable than electric alternatives, while all of the company’s products have a minimum safety factor of four and are designed robustly to ensure “very low” maintenance costs.

RENT OR BUY?

One company offering the option to customers to hire rather than purchase its technology is Rotrex Winches.

Based in Derbyshire, UK, its operations manager Don Wilkinson says that the company supplies winches to the offshore sector for a wide range of applications, including oil riser and umbilical pull-ins, subsea structure deployment and recovery, platform and vessel structure operations, and deck management.

“While this trend has not fully hit more commoditised products like winches, as Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities expand, equipment with these features will become even more valuable,” she confirms.

Last summer, the company launched its Hydraulic Force Series of utility winches for onshore rig manufacturers and operators in North America. The winches, which are said to offer simple plug-andplay installation, support material handling needs from lifting equipment, to racking and stacking pipe.

SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS

While some manufacturers offer both offshore and onshore winches to the oil and gas sector, French supplier Verlinde boasts an offshore lifting equipment range designed especially for use in a maritime environment.

The range includes an array of lifting equipment together with their components: jib cranes, electric chain and wire rope hoists, winches, and overhead crane components.

Manufacturers of winches for the oil and gas sector offering tailored solutions for customers