Page 15: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2026)

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ising in deepwater lifting systems for continuous duty. The

Deck operations changed architecture separates traction from storage, delivering the

On Ocean Guardian, the crew noticed the difference required lift capacity within the vessel’s existing power en- during the frst operational period. Spooling and empty- velope and deck footprint without modifcations to foun- hook recovery settled into routine, and line behaviour re- dations or auxiliary systems.

mained consistent across load changes. During extended

Sam Bull, business consultant at Parkburn, said rope per- periods of active heave compensation, the rope generated formance cannot be assessed in isolation from the system it neither the heat nor the deck contamination associated operates within. “Fiber and rope companies spend most of with steel wire under the same conditions.

their time proving their products outperform competitors

No lubricant transferred to deck surfaces, and lower line in isolation, rather than understanding how they behave mass reduced the managed energy during handling. Tasks within the actual deployment and recovery system,” he that would normally be delayed or re-sequenced around said. “Real performance is governed by the entire operat- lifting activity ran concurrently. “What stood out was how ing environment: winch type, sheave geometry, spoolers, little attention the system needed once it was running,” feeting angles, bearing surfaces, system dynamics such as Stabbert said. “We weren’t constantly adjusting how we speed and active heave compensation, and the unknown worked around it.” conditions delivered by mother nature.”

As deepwater operations extend in duration and

To validate that view under representative conditions, involve more frequent lifting cycles, the gap between

Hampidjan commissioned independent cyclic bend-over- systems that integrate quietly into daily workflow and sheave testing through NORCE Research at the Mecha- those that impose continual adjustments on surround- tronics Innovation Lab in Norway. The testing applied ing work becomes commercially significant. For op- repeated cyclic bending at defned speed and elevated am- erators planning extended deepwater programmes, ev- bient temperature without external cooling, to replicate eryday system behaviour may matter as much as peak sustained operational loading. Ellen Nordgård-Hansen, rated capacity.

senior researcher at NORCE, said the focus on heat and ________________________________________ fatigue progression was deliberate. “Cyclic bending and

TechIce® is manufactured by Hampidjan and incor- heat are the primary drivers of hoisting rope degradation porates Technora® aramid fbers supplied by Teijin Ara- in practice,” she said. The test programme evaluated mul- mid. The deepwater capstan winch was designed by Park- tiple response parameters rather than a single performance burn. Find out more about TechIce here: https://techice.

metric, allowing side-by-side comparison of different rope teijinaramid.com/techice/?utm_source=oedigital&utm_ confgurations under the same degradation conditions.

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MAY/JUNE 2026 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 15