A nondestructive test contribution to the safety of offshore cranes

Conference · Sun Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:106050

Hands, G ^[1]; Bourgeors-Jacquet, P ^[2]

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1. MEAGH, Nieuwegein (Netherlands)
2. SKF RKS SA, Avallon (France)

Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) plays a vital role in safety as well as in economics of manufacturing. This paper shows an example of how NDT has been successfully used offshore in Europe for a number of years, inspecting slewing bearings. Slewing bearings are the bearings that support among other things cranes and earth-moving equipment. These bearings carry a very heavy slow moving unbalanced axial-load. Due to the extreme environment and the very heavy and unbalanced loading supported by the bearings, particularly on oil exploration and production platforms in the North Sea, some bearings have failed catastrophically. In order to minimize the dangers, authorities have stipulated that slewing bearings for cranes employed in the North Sea are to be periodically inspected. The normal life-restricting failure mode of slewing bearings is spalling of the raceways. This is the rolling contact surface of the bearing breaking-up under the very heavy loads imposed upon it. The developed ultrasonic testing technique, apart from detecting and monitoring cracks in the stressed areas of the bearing, is also able to monitor the initiation and growth of any spalling on the main raceways of the bearings, thus enabling better planning on maintenance and replacements. This paper describes the development of the ultrasonic testing system.

• OSTI ID: 106050
• Report Number(s): CONF-950116--; ISBN 0-7918-1298-7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
BEARINGS
CRACK PROPAGATION
CRANES
INSPECTION
NORTH SEA
OFFSHORE PLATFORMS
OIL FIELDS
PORTABLE EQUIPMENT
PROBES
SAFETY
ULTRASONIC TESTING