Efficiency, Innovation and Integration, these were the watchwords for the maritime industry of today and the future at the GL Group’s press conference at SMM 2012 in Hamburg yesterday. The members of the media and industry stakeholders who had assembled for the presentations were first addressed by GL Group CEO Erik van der Noordaa, who looked at how the Group had broadened its focus in recent years and taken advantage of the integration of new business units to expand its range of services.
Expanding GL’s Maritime Perspectives
A programme of growth and targeted acquisitions had transformed the GL Group into a global service provider, said Mr van der Noordaa. He looked at areas, especially in the offshore industry, where complementary competencies within the Group’s three business units – Maritime, Oil and Gas and Renewables – meant that contributions were made to projects on multiple fronts, with cable laying and installation, offshore wind farms and wind turbine installation vessels, being notable examples.
Offshore Innovations within the GL Group
The benefits of this interdisciplinary approach and the synergies which have arisen through integration at the GL Group were pointed out by COO Torsten Schramm, who looked at how the GL Group has been able to leverage its expertise by merging its offshore competencies.
The offshore market was poised for explosive growth, said Mr Schramm, with per year MW installations set to more than triple over the next three years. Working offshore, especially in the offshore wind area, required a unique mix of skillsets, he noted as the often massive projects required multiple vessel types, expertise in both fixed and floating structures, cable and power supply knowledge, and often all within a single vessel.
The new “Pacific Orca” project was an excellent example of how the GL Group’s multi-disciplinary capability could come together in a single project, Mr Schramm said. A truly collaborative project involving multiple GL Group business units, GL Noble Denton, the Group’s Oil and Gas business, undertook the engineering and design work for the legs, spud-cans and the jacking system, including FMEA, as well as integration of these components into the ship’s hull.
They also provided the shipyard consultancy and site-specific assessment services. Germanischer Lloyd (GL) subsidiary FutureShip carried out the global strength and fatigue analyses for the ship afloat and was responsible for owner consultancy. While GL, as a classification society, conducted the in-place analysis in jacked-up mode and provides the classification services for the “Pacific Orca”.
The classification process for the “Pacific Orca” was based on new rules for Hull Structures of Offshore Service Vessels which were published in 2010, Mr Schramm said. These rules have recently been supplemented by a set of classification rules for Crew Boats and Offshore Wind Farm Service Craft.
This was done to consolidate all the relevant GL rules, international codes and recommendations applicable to the classification of crew boats into one coherent framework. Using this compendium, designers developing vessels for the needs of their clients will be able to rely on one single collection of rules and guidelines with full confidence that their design will comply with classification requirements.
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Press release, September 5, 2012; Image: GL