The world's first ultra-high strength offshore mooring chain (diameter 89 mm) of grade R6 got loaded on the wharf of AsAc for delivery on February 4. This batch of mooring chains will be transported to Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, and then installed to CM-SD1000 medium and deep water semi-submersible drilling platform independently developed by China. This is also the first industrial application of grade R6 mooring chains.

       CM-SD1000 medium deep water semi-submersible drilling platform, the first of the same kind in China, was jointly developed by China Merchants Industry Holding and China Oilfield Services Limited. It is a new generation of product created to implement the national strategies of Marine Potestatem and Made in China 2025.

       The mooring chain product is an important device to maintain the safety of marine engineering facilities and a key component of the offshore mooring positioning system for marine engineering equipment. As introduced by Liu Baotao, the design manager of CM-SD1000 medium and deep water semi-submersible drilling platform, this platform is designed with an unpowered positioning system to reduce construction and operating costs. Since the positioning of the platform during offshore operations is entirely dependent on the mooring chains, this places very high requirements on the strength, toughness and corrosion resistance of the mooring chains.。

       12 mooring chains of R6 grade with a single length of 2,250 m and a total weight of approximately 4,800 tons will ensure that the CM-SD1000 medium deep water semi-submersible drilling platform can meet the medium deep water operation needs at 300-1000 meters in different sea areas around the world. Praised by Xu Lixin, chief scientist of China Merchants Industrial Holding: "The R6 grade marine mooring chain is the highest strength mooring chain in the world today. The use of grade R6 mooring chains not only reduces the construction cost of the platform by about 20 million yuan, but also saves a lot of load space for the platform and increases the market competitiveness of the platform. "

The picture shows the interior of the workshop of AsAc. Photograph taken by Wang Ping

The Grade R6 mooring chain manufactured by AsAc has been certified by both the China Classification Society and the Norwegian Classification Society. Liu Yaoyong, Jiangyin regional manager of the Norwegian Classification Society, said that the Grade R6 mooring chain meets the requirements of the latest international standards and norms, and its various indicators have reached the international advanced level.
“The core and key technologies can't be claimed, bought or begged from others. By sticking to hardwork and independent innovation, we finally broke through the ‘bottleneck’ technology in the marine engineering mooring chain field and seized the high ground of international competition.” As introduced by Tao Xing, the deputy general manager of AsAc, that the Grade R6 mooring chain is the result of eight years of research and development by AsAc.

The picture shows some of the products of AsAc. Photograph taken by Wang Ping

In 2005, AsAc developed the Grade R3 mooring chains, breaking the monopoly of western countries for more than 30 years. After that, AsAc has successively developed high-strength Grade R4 mooring chains and ultra-high-strength Grade R5 mooring chains. Since 2012, the company has invested tens of millions of yuan in the development and production of Grade R6 mooring chains. We challenged many impossibilities in the industry, achieved a series of important innovations in materials, design, technology and manufacturing, formulated 2 ISO international standards and 3 national standards, and applied for more than 20 invention patents.

Source: www.jsjjw.cn/