SK Oceanplant acquires patents for offshore wind power structure fabrication

SK Oceanplant, a South Korean ship and offshore plant builder formerly known as Samkang M&T, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired two patents related to the fabrication of structures used for assembly to reinforce substructures for offshore wind turbines.

The patents the company secured lately are "auxiliary device for mounting X-shaped reinforcement and jacket manufacturing method based on it" and "J-tube position correction device and manufacturing method of offshore generator based on it," which helps to install submarine cables for sending electricity to the land at the correct position.

Among jackets for offshore wind turbines, a tripod-type jacket with three legs can stably support the generator when the legs are placed precisely at a certain angle to each other.

In this case, it is important that the X-shaped structural reinforcement, which serves as the body connecting the legs, be fixed in the correct position. Until now, a crane was required to assemble this reinforcement with each leg.

In addition, the installation work was carried out while each part was suspended from the crane, which took a long time to connect the structure and caused safety problems.

According to the company, if the patented method of fixing X-shaped structural reinforcements using auxiliary devices is applied in the future, the time required to use the crane will be minimized and the speed and accuracy of the existing method can be greatly improved by connecting each structure to the correct location.

In addition, by applying the patented method related to the "J-tube position correction device," it is possible to secure the stability and minimize the dimensional inspection time by fixing the tube manufacturing position that protects the submarine cable to the correct position using an auxiliary device.

"Based on continuous research and development and the accumulated experience of parent company SK Ecoplant, we will accelerate our move into the global offshore wind power market," said Lee Seung-chul, CEO of SK Oceanplant.

Write to Seo-Woo Jang at suwu@hankyung.com