The Deep Tek Soft Rope System has received the Subsea Innovation Award at this year’s Offshore Support Journal Conference. The Soft Rope System is a collaboration between Lankhorst Ropes, Deep Tek AS, and DSM Dyneema. It is capable of handling heavy loads at water depths of well over 3,000m.
The Soft Rope system comprises Lankhorst Ropes’ Lanko®Deep rope, DSM Dyneema, and an Active Heave Compensation (AHC) drum winch system from Deep Tek. The innovative patented drum winch design ensures a spooling pattern that allows multiple layers of fibre rope to be spooled onto a load bearing winch drum with no risk of cutting in. It is certified by DNV-GL at 110Te in air and 110Te at 3,000m water depth. Larger Soft Rope systems capable of handling 165Te and 275Te are in development.
The design and integration of the Soft Rope system is entirely function-based, in accordance with the underlying principles of DNVGL Offshore standard, DNV-OS-E407, Underwater Deployment & Recovery Systems and DNVGL Recommended Practice for Technology Qualification, DNV-RP-A203, Qualification Procedures for New Technology.
On the award Sérgio Leite, Sales Director, Lankhorst Ropes Offshore commented “We are delighted that Soft Rope System has received this prestigious award. Lankhorst Ropes has a long history of rope innovation. To be part of another award winning innovation is a great achievement for Lankhorst. As the Oil & Gas industry had shown the desire to work at greater depths than possible with steel wire ropes, the challenge was to provide a synthetic rope that could. Lankhorst’s Lanko®Deep AHC rope makes operating at over 3,000m possible”.
Lanko®Deep
The 3-strand fibre rope is neutrally buoyant in water compared with the far higher, self-weight of steel wire rope and provides the optimal balance of load-bearing capacity and flexibility of bending over sheave.
The innovative Lanko®Deep AHC design ensures the minimal number of cross-over points and thus reduces the opportunity for internal abrasion. The open structure of the rope makes it especially easy to splice, inspect and repair. In addition, the rope’s special Dyneema fibre grade reduces the tension required for bedding in the rope, as well as reducing internal heating and abrasion.
