Mud pumps for AkerKvaerner’s two Aker H6-designed, sixth-generation semisubmersible drilling rigs will be supplied by Germany-based Schorch. The mud pumps will be the largest in the industry when the semis go into operation, scheduled for 2008.
Schorch-designed mud pump for installation on Aker H6-designed drilling rigs.
The pumps are triplex-design and rated at 2,000 hp each. Four pumps will be installed on each rig, for a full pumping capacity of 8,000 hp. The pump packages will weigh 200 tons per rig and will be 4 m in height.
The pumps will be speed-controlled by frequency converters via electric motors also provided by Schorch. The EExe motors are water-cooled and double-shafted with an arrangement for insulating the bearings of the motor to avoid current damages from the PWM-type inverters.
Schorch-designed, water-cooled and double-shafted EExe motors will control the speed of the mud pumps installed on the Aker H6 semisubmersibles.
Schorch says it makes electric motors to 25 MW with voltage up to 15 kV, and its EExd execution with up to more than 10 MW.
Many of its EEx motors, similar to the eight on order to Aker, are on rigs in the North Sea. Most of them were built in accordance to Norsk requirements, and DNV approved. The company delivered the motors for theSnorre B drilling rig in 1999.
The Schorch factory is equipped with a bunker for explosion testing of EEx motors. Thus, it is certified to grant its own EEx approvals in accordance with PTB. The company says this gives it the flexibility to accommodate short delivery schedules and to custom design motors.
The Schorch factory, established in Mönchengladbach, Germany, in 1882, is one of the largest manufacturers of electric motors in the world.
