wiredinUSA March 2014

INDEX

Laboratory granted certification

Wire rope workshop

The international marine contractors association (IMCA) wire rope work group will hold the fourth in its current series of wire rope workshops on 18 th March 2014 at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Amsterdam Airport. The series, entitled “Optimum system design for high value subsea construction ropes”, hasprovedverysuccessful. IMCA’s technical director, Jane Bugler, commented: “Over 90 [delegates] attended the last workshop in Amsterdam in October, which focused on the lubrication of high value subsea construction ropes; others have looked at high value wire rope issues, and at non-destructive testing.” The March event will embrace the operators’ view of current and future system requirements; the system designer’s approach for wire rope interaction (storage, routing, winches, sheaves and active heave systems); rope qualification methods for specific systems; fully integrated monitoring systems and interaction with rope systems; and multi-fail and parallel winch systems in deep water.

Alstom has obtained ISO/IEC 17025 certification from the accreditation body Accredia for its center of excellence high voltage equipment testing laboratory in Noventa di Piave, Italy. The certification for the research and development laboratory is claimed to be the first in Italy to obtain the accreditation. The laboratory will supply independent testing services and internationally valid certification for products that lead to improving HVDC transmission lines. The test chamber, which has been a part of the Noventa di Piave plant since 1973, conducts electrical, heating and mechanical tests of energy transmission and distribution equipment, as well as components used in supergrids. At the new laboratory, tests include industrial frequency voltage tests up to 640kV root mean square (rms), atmospheric impulse tests up to 1.8MV, maneuver impulse tests up to 1.2MV, and radio interference voltage (RIV) tests up to 640kV rms.

EUROPE NEWS

wiredInUSA - March 2014

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