Thordon Bearings Inc. offshore business is

A Thordon SXL bearing in excess of 2 metres (6.5 ft) in diameter for a turret mooring application has been installed in Singapore as part of the conversion of the Ruby Princess to a Floating Production Storage & Offloading (FPSO) vessel for offshore Vietnam. The largest bearing produced to date by Thordon is a key component of the turret assembly. The turret is designed to operate in a hostile marine environment resulting in large mooring chain loads and high pressures in the turret bearings.

Thordon has been fitted on both oil platforms and FPSO vessels. Generally FPSO's are moored in one offshore location for five to ten years and are subject to fluctuating seastate and weather conditions so the loads encountered can vary considerably over a period of time. Since there is no margin for error, the offshore industry has turned to Thordon for their unique bearing needs when facing the unpredictable challenges of extracting oil at sea.

FPSO Conversion

The turret mooring installed as part of the conversion of the Ruby Princess was the third in a series of bow-turrets designed and manufactured by Nortrans Offshore Ltd., Singapore. The key to the timely completion of the tanker conversion was a 48 day drydocking period to install, assemble, and test the turret mooring. Nortrans' Project Engineer Kevin Power noted, "This was achieved by completing a substantial amount of the bow

modifications while the vessel was afloat and expediting the major casting and bearing deliveries. Thordon's performance in achieving a 16-week turnaround on the main bearings to keep to this fast-track installation schedule was exceptional."

Thordon's Singapore distributor, Oakwell Engineering supplied Nortrans with eighteen chain stopper bearings, eighteen chain stopper thrust bearings, single turret main and thrust bearings of 2190mm (86") inside diameter and three sets of segmented bearings for the riser core.

Kevin concluded saying, "Nortrans utilizes bronze backed Thordon TRAXL bearings in submerged applications as they do not require complex sealing and lubricating assemblies, are easily assembled by the shipyard without specialized tooling.

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Mark Harris is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.bearing-n-bearings.com. Keep things running smoothly with ball bearings, roller bearings, ball thrust bearings and tapered bearings.