Innovo relocates state-of-the-art back-deck lay equipment to Aberdeen, UK

Engineering firm, Innovo, has relocated its ground-breaking electric Modular Reel Drive System (RDS), Innodrive 800T to Aberdeen to ensure that it is readily accessible to the North Sea, Southern North Sea and West Africa.

The Innodrive 800T RDS can carry 800-ton reels including the product in a sea state 8 and has a peak torque of 350 tons per metre at full speed. Currently located at Sparrows Group HQ in Aberdeen, it is available for rental for product lay or recovery and is fully configurable to suit project requirements for the offshore oil and gas and renewables industries. It can be managed and monitored remotely, involving fewer people in crew changes.

This new addition to the fleet is designed to be fully integrated with the latest generation of Sparrows tensioners. Together, they improve performance and reliability to a level unprecedented in the back-deck lay equipment market.

Approved by Lloyd’s Register (LR), the 800T RDS represents the latest of the large electrical RDSs introduced by Innovo over 13 years for laying or recovering flexible flowlines, umbilicals, mooring wires and power cables.

Stefano Malagodi, managing director of Innovo, explained: “Due to increased demand, we are thrilled to locate our latest RDS in Aberdeen. Representing a milestone in the supply of back-deck lay equipment in terms of performance and reliability, the electric Modular Innodrive 800T will now be much more accessible to the some of the industry’s most profitable basins. Our designers have worked closely with Sparrows and LR to develop a product that will deliver significant savings during operations, thanks to both greater efficiency and the removal of typical maintenance schedules of hydraulic equipment.”

Stewart Mitchell, CEO of Sparrows, commented: “With Innovo’s sophisticated electric RDS now at our facilities in Aberdeen it can be deployed quickly to any North Sea project. We have witnessed an increase in demand for our electrically driven tensioners in recent years and this RDS compliments our rental range perfectly. Our partnership with Innovo allows us to offer customers a seamless full back-deck lay solution that is suitable for the most demanding environments.”

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