Ship&Offshore | Issue 03/2014
Modelling and analysis of offshore knuckle boom crane
OFFSHORE DRILLING Today’s offshore drilling equipment is characterised by high prices, high system complexity and low production numbers. Manufacturers must demonstrate a great level of skill and experience to develop the equipment since opportunities to build prototypes for testing and verifying new designs are few. Increasing focus on production and development costs adds to this challenge. As a consequence, design engineers continuously have to improve their procedures regarding principal solutions, components and materials to reach the best possible trade-off between various performance criteria such as reliability, efficiency and cost, writes Morten K. Bak, senior engineer for Hydraulic Design at Aker Solutions, a Norwegian oil service company.