Damen ARNO Dunkerque, part of the Damen Shiprepair & Conversion Group, has given a new set of ‘feet’ to the world’s first purpose-built offshore wind turbine installation and maintenance vessel, the 2003-built MPI Resolution. The yard has carried out upgrades on the feet or ‘spudcans’ of all the jack-up vessel’s six legs to give them the additional strength they need to withstand the huge loads to which they are subjected when spudding on rocky seabeds.

The operation, which is thought to be the first of kind, involved strengthening the spudcans through the use of the innovative Sandwich Plate System (SPS) developed by Intelligent Engineering (UK) Ltd. SPS is a new generation composite building material comprising two metal plates bonded with a polyurethane elastomer core. In the case of the MPI Resolution, the original 40 mm steel plating on the spudcans was bonded with a 40 mm layer of polyurethane elastomer to a second 40 mm high strength steel plate.

Tags: Damen Shipyards