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THE STENA APACHE |
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To the uninitiated, it looks like a giant roller coaster on the back of a ship but to Air Power & Hydraulics it is just another application of their expertise in the building of specially designed hydraulic components.
Managing Director Ian Paterson explains: "We were invited by commissioning clients P J Engineering Products Ltd. to build two double acting telescopic cylinders of large capacity, capable of displacing a full sized pressurised cabin over nine metres, set on a ramp at 60°. This turned out, was for installation on the pipe laying ship, Stena Apache."
"The problem arose because of the nature of Apache's world pipe laying operations. At one time, it could be operating in the heat of the tropics. At another it might be operating in the harsh climate of deep sea Atlantic waters. The welders were being exposed to extremes of climate and it was necessary to house them in a specially built pressurised cabin."
Life, though, is not so simple. Because of the need to get cranes and lifting gear into the immediate area of the welding station, the cabin had to be mobile, on tracks, and because of the restricted space on the back deck of the ship, the only solution was to raise the cabin on a ramp set at 60°. Hence the apparent resemblance to a fairground. In all, the entire assembly is displaced by about nine metres from rest and required Air Power & Hydraulics' expertise in designing and building specialist hydraulic cylinders. The two cylinders were part of a bigger order for nearly twenty hydraulic installations on the ship.
Gerry Eskdale, of PJ Engineering, commented, "We are happy to work again with Air Power & Hydraulics and tap into their thirty years experience in specialised hydraulic cylinders. The whole order was handled in their usual efficient style and there were no hitches."
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