Offshore staff
LANCASTER, UK– First Subsea has achieved American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) 2009 Approval for its larger R4 steel forgings up to 562-mm (22.1-in.) diameter.
The ABS 2009 Certification of Offshore Mooring Chain (updated 2014) specifies the requirements for materials, design, manufacture, and testing of offshore mooring chain and accessories, including subsea mooring connectors, intended to be used for temporary and permanent mooring systems.
The approval applies toFirst Subsea’s range of its Ballgrab ball and taper mooring connectors manufactured from steel grade 4330V forgings up to 562-mm outside diameter. The subsea mooring connectors can be used with R3, R3S, R4, R4S, and R5 grade chain and shackle.
The company said that these are the largest diameter forgings to have received the approval.
It also noted that the ABS 2009 approval built on First Subsea’s investment in research into large scale steel forgings. In collaboration with the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Microstructural and Mechanical Process Engineering, the company leads the world in research into the manufacture and testing of 4330V large scale steel forgings.
The company’s research was instrumental in the development of the steel grade 4330V, and in assisting ABS in specifying the optimum sample testing location for assessing the forging's mechanical properties and Charpy impact values.
Greg Campbell-Smith, global business development manager, First Subsea, said: “The mechanical values we achieved from our latest testing indicated we could be offering R4S grade material over 500 mm in the near future.”
04/28/2016
