May I introduce myself? I make wind turbines.

And you?

The Wind Lift 1, the service and installation vessel of Bard Engineering Group, has a lot to do.

Alone the foundation of a commercial installation in an offshore park weighs more than 1000 tons. In addition, the piles with a length of approx. 70 metres weigh about 210 tons each. Therefore suitable transport and assembly must be ensured. For this, Bard Engineering Group has an appropriate answer. With the Wind Lift 1 the company in Bremen developed a vessel which meets the requirements for offshore installations.

Plenty of tests and simulations were done. Using models on a scale of 1:40 the new foundation structure and the vessel were exposed to much stress in the wave tunnel of the Technische Universität Berlin - and found to be good.

Even wave heights are no problem any more. The Wind Lift 1 can lift itself with its legs of 72 metres. Despite its high balance point and a draught of only 3.5 metres the 103.8 metre long ship, which is relatively wide with its 36 metres, can travel at up to 10.1 knots even with a wind force of 11.


Image source: Bard Engineering Group

More information:

http://www.bard-offshore.de/en/~

The magazine Wirtschaftswoche writes on the company Bard Engineering GmbH: "Hardly anybody believed that the company Bard in Bremen, newly founded in the wind business area in 2003, could pioneer in wind farms. All the more so that nobody could assess the entrepreneurial abilities of the then 68 year old founder Arngolt Bekker."

What is a ROV?

Image source: Wikimedia

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is a tethered underwater robot. They are common in deepwater industries such as offshore hydrocarbon extraction. An ROV may sometimes be called a remotely operated underwater vehicle to distinguish it from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the air. ROVs are unoccupied, highly manoeuvrable and operated by a person aboard a vessel. They are linked to the ship by a tether (sometimes referred to as an umbilical cable), a group of cables that carry electrical power, video and data signals back and forth between the operator and the vehicle. High power applications will often use hydraulics in addition to electrical cabling. Most ROVs are equipped with at least a video camera and lights. Additional equipment is commonly added to expand the vehicle’s capabilities. These may include sonars, magnetometers, a still camera, a manipulator or cutting arm, water samplers, and instruments that measure water clarity, light penetration and temperature.

»»» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/


A robotic submarine is undergoing final preparations to dive to the deepest-known part of the oceans.

If successful, Nereus will be the first autonomous vehicle to visit the 11,000m (36,089ft) Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean.

Only two other vehicles have ever visited the spot before, both of them human operated.

»»» http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8035499.stm

Working in water

Image source: HOCHTIEF AG

With its jack-up platform Odin HOCHTIEF is bracing itself for major maritime projects worldwide: Odin - the platform named after the Nordic God Father - tests its technical skills in rough offshore applications.

To give you a first impression and more information:

»»» http://www.berichte.hochtief.de

»»» http://www.hochtief-construction.de/pdf