ACE Winches secures contract for a 500te Reel Drive System to Oceaneering

The 500te RDS was designed and manufactured at ACE Winches facilities. The product range includes a 200te and a 400te RDS  which were  developed for high tension spooling and have been used in the deployment and recovery of subsea products such as umbilicals, risers and flow lines, flexible pipelines, power cables, telecommunication cables, tubing, wire ropes and mooring lines. 

The patent pending 500te RDS consists of two towers that disassemble into eight modules for easy transportation. The towers use a slave and master configuration, with two gear boxes in each drive hub.

Alfie Cheyne, CEO, ACE Winches commented: “As our clients projects venture to even greater water depths, we have to develop specialised deck machinery to pre-empt these environmental challenges.”

The scope of work for the Oceaneering contract included the spooling 4400m of umbilical cable with a diameter of 229mm onto a 12.2m reel. The weight of the umbilical is the heaviest Oceaneering has ever spooled with a total weight of 426te.

ACE Winches supplied a 500te RDS to meet the client’s specific needs, the RDS was fitted with an added base frame and packers to accommodate the requirement of spooling the 12.2m reel quayside.

Chris Waller, engineering manager, commented: “ACE Winches has invested heavily in the design and manufacture of reel drive systems and we are excited to be expanding our capabilities to allow for 14m maximum flange diameter and a 500te load.”

In addition to the ACE 500te RDS, ACE Winches also supplied 10 commissioning engineers and technicians to assemble and commission the ACE 500te reel drive system, with a further six operating technicians providing a 24 hour service to complete the spooling.