Early project makes a comeback with USA delivery

MDL’s latest USA project has brought back memories of an early delivery to one of the company’s longest standing clients.

Nearly six years after delivering a 3-tonne flying lead turntable to Subsea 7 UK, the MDL manufacturing team set out to build a larger version of the system for the client’s American business.

Now, the new, 12-tonne unit has been delivered, together with a dedicated powerpack, destined for both onshore and offshore operations across the Atlantic.

The portable system rotates at 2.5rpm and features an integrated torque control system. It is bi-directional and can be modified to handle different types of pallet.

“It was great to get back to the roots of our relationship with Subsea 7 with the delivery of this system,” said George Mackintosh, MDL operations director.

“The original 3-tonne unit was one of our early deliveries to the client, shortly following a lower chute compensator and a deck radius controller - the tallest structure in our portfolio in those days.

“Those were the beginnings of a close working relationship, which resulted in an order of 40 winches and four tensioners for operations offshore Brazil, completed ahead of schedule last year.

“We hope that with timely deliveries like these we can continue to strengthen this connection, despite the challenging times.”

Among other major deliveries to the client are a 50Te 4-track tensioner and a 400Te reel drive system (RDS) as well as four winch and OBT packages for newbuilt vessels - read more about this delivery here.