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US 5,971,666 AGranted
Pipe laying vessel
AssigneeCoflexip Stena Offshore Limited
InventorsRobert George Martin, Donald Carmichael, Stephen John Roberts
Life of this patent
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AssigneeCoflexip Stena Offshore Limited
InventorsRobert George Martin, Donald Carmichael, Stephen John Roberts
Estimating the term…
An apparatus for laying marine pipelines of the type in which the pipeline is assembled along a horizontal axis on board a pipelaying vessel prior to being launched therefrom; in which the pipeline is plastically bent to a desired launch angle and, in most cases, at least partially straightened thereafter. In preferred embodiments, the pipeline is bent through an angle greater than 90.degree.. In the most preferred embodiments, the pipeline is diverted through an angle of substantially 270.degree., plus or minus an angle allowing variation in the launch angle from the vertical, and crosses itself prior to entering the water. The pipeline (102) is diverted by being passed around a wheel-like diverter structure (104), the pipeline being assembled in multiple fabrication lines to produce stalks which are aligned and connected in a central firing line prior to being fed around the diverter structure. Other variations are also described.
A vessel for use in laying an underwater pipeline, the vessel including a deck area, means on the deck area for aligning pipe sections along a substantially horizontal axis and connecting said pipe sections together to form a pipeline, and means for bending the pipeline to cause it to pass from said horizontal axis to a launch axis having a substantial inclination to the horizontal, wherein said pipeline bending means is adapted to plastically bend the pipeline about a substantially arcuate path in a substantially vertical plane and to bend the pipeline through an angle greater than 90.degree..
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.