Member Article

Francis Brown Fabricates and Site Installs 700Te Carousel to One of the UK’s Largest Windfarms

A North East global supplier of fabrication and engineering services has successfully fabricated and installed - in only 11 weeks - a 700Te carousel which will be used for the storage of spare cables for UK offshore windfarm projects.

Stockton-based Francis Brown was commissioned to fabricate and site install the 700Te carousel to the project base in Sunderland, by Ecosse Subsea Systems on behalf of an international infrastructure group.

With the ability to upgrade from a 700Te to 1700Te capacity, the carousel comprises a number of key items and sub-assemblies including; basket and core, grillage, rollers and tracks, floor, drive system and central bush.

Speaking about the contract, Mark Roddy, Managing Director at Francis Brown, said: “We are thrilled to be part of this project and believe that it is our experience, quality, ability to hit a very tight schedule and excellent safety record that landed us this order.

“We pride ourselves in providing first class, robust and sustainable solutions to projects across the globe and firmly believe it is our emphasis on delivering exceptional design – coupled with our focus on safe manufacturing and installation - that makes us the supplier of choice across our industries.

“These key values are underpinned by our ability to constantly deliver on time and on specification. And, with a growing demand for storage carousels across the renewable sector, we firmly believe delivery of this project can only lead to further opportunities for us in this growing market.”

The company prides itself on being what it believes to be one of the few fabrication and engineering firms to use the latest progressive FARO tracker laser measuring equipment which was used to deliver this project. The investment in such equipment enables Francis Brown to achieve the upmost measurement accuracy of high precision parts.

The project adds to Francis Brown’s already extensive portfolio delivering engineering services and solutions to projects worth over £10m in the offshore renewables, chemical, oil and gas, rail, nuclear, power and construction markets. The company has the ability to assemble and install units of any size, scale and specification and has already installed some of the largest fabrication and engineering components to projects across the globe, including the world’s largest tidal turbine to date – the MeyGenTidal Stream project in the Pentland Firth.

Established in 1903, Francis Brown has carved a reputation for world class engineering and welding excellence. With the company’s extensive experience and capabilities, a project can be managed from a concept right through to final assembly, installation and inspection, as such delivering a full turn key solution. The company operates from its head office in Stockton and has specialist manufacturing facilities including state of the art workshops.

Ecosse Subsea Services (ESS) has a long track record in providing specialist engineering services, ancillary equipment, and project management to the renewables, oil and gas and interconnector industries.

The design and project management phases were conducted at ESS headquarters in Banchory near Aberdeen, with partial manufacture undertaken at ESS subsidiary firm MASfab in County Durham.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Scarab4 .