Pipe handling on a drilling vessel: safe cable guidance with E4.1 energy chains

• What was needed: E4.1 series energy chain
• Requirements: A large number of heavy cables must be moved horizontally and vertically. The dead weight of the cable routing should be low.
• Industry: Offshore
• Success for the customer: The E4.1 e-chain® is used for horizontal and vertical travel. As a plastic-energy chain, it has a comparatively low dead weight. Nevertheless, it is robust and can also guide heavy hydraulic lines without any problems.

Pipe handling equipment - whether onshore or offshore - requires a large number of energy, data and hydraulic cables. As these cables also have a high dead weight, energy supply solutions are primarily sought here that are robust and therefore not susceptible to incidents or even failures. For offshore drilling rigs in particular, all cables should be bundled together in a confined space where possible in order to save space on the drill ship and ensure a safe operating environment.
Finally, the dead weight of the cable routing should also be low in order to reduce the drive energy required to move the system.
For these two applications, cable routing solutions should be found on drill ships for the pipe racker systems that move both horizontally on deck and vertically along the derrick. The cables supply the pipe handling equipment, which is responsible, for example, for the horizontal handling of the drill pipe, such as loading the fingerboard or operating the top drive.

The two offshore applications turned out to be the perfect locations for our E4.1 energy chain series. The plastic energy chains were primarily designed to be extremely robust so that a large number of heavy cables, such as hydraulic lines, can be routed inside without any problems. Especially in the case of the vertically travelling e-chain®, the low dead weight of the cable routing also benefits the operator.
For the energy chain travelling horizontally on deck, on the other hand, the decision was made to design the E4.1 as a multiband e-chain®. Special separators ensure a secure hold and additional stability of the system and can also handle high additional loads without any problems.