New connectors for drilling rig

The issue

By the end of 2018, the Hakuryu 10 had moved on from an award for the best performing platform of the year 2015, but 10 years of work at sea were beginning to take their toll. The connector units to the water pumps were still the original units and needed replacing. Not because they were over 10 years old, but because they had corroded due to (weather) conditions. This was caused by the fact that in 2008 the then supplier had chosen standard connector units. For that reason, this time we were engaged to replace them.

Passing the test

Of course, we kept the existing situation intact and the water pumps connected to the connector units. What we did change was the type of connector units. Indeed, the end customer's logical request was connector units with a longer life. To meet that demand, we needed rugged connector units. In fact, they are fully exposed to temperature fluctuations, prolonged vibrations, rain, wind and seawater. For industrial applications such as an oil rig, safety is essential and connector units must have mechanical locking and fingertouch protection.

Drilling platform with a durable connection

Our recommendation was to use the seawater-resistant connector units from the Rauscher & Stoecklin CUMI series. No sea is too high for these 400A connector units as the entire housing is manufactured from high quality stainless steel. We have combined these mechanically interlocked connector units with connectors from the B-line series from the same manufacturer. These connectors also have an additional corrosion protective coating layer.

The custom connector units and connectors were installed the same year and, to this day, the end customer does not have to worry about having to replace the connector units again for the time being.