The groundbreaking performance and weight savings offered by ISOVER's ULTIMATE™ insulation products have led to them being selected for the insulation of 38 new modular accommodation units for the Talisman Auk oil platform in the North Sea.
Part of a comprehensive upgrade to increase drilling capacity and extend field life for the platform, which is located approximately 155 miles south east of Aberdeen, the new units are being designed and built by Consafe Engineering Services, a world leader in offshore living quarters.
One of the main challenges for Consafe was to minimise overall weight whilst conforming to the most demanding offshore fire regulations and delivering high levels of thermal and acoustic insulation for the state-of-the-art modules, which will provide ultra high specification living and sleeping accommodation for the platform's 120 offshore personnel.
With every element of the 40m-long modules closely examined for weight savings, ISOVER marine specialists were called in to find alternatives to the traditional heavy stone mineral wool products that had originally been specified throughout the new accommodation units to achieve blast and fire protection standards.
Working closely with Consafe, they developed a complete insulation specification for the modules, based predominantly on ISOVER's ULTIMATE™ mineral wool insulation - a recent breakthrough development that combines all of the outstanding fire, acoustic and thermal performance benefits of conventional mineral wool with substantial weight savings.
Following field trials to establish the optimum combination of insulation density and thickness for the various deckhead and bulkhead applications, ISOVER assisted Consafe in gaining Bureau Veritas and Det Norske Veritas approvals for the products to be used on this demanding project.
To reduce noise breakout and fan noise throughout the structures, all ductwork was also insulated with ISOVER High Performance Ductwrap, bringing the total area of ISOVER insulation installed in the 38 modules to more than 11,000 square metres.
The switch to ISOVER ULTIMATE mineral wool and High Performance Ductwrap not only met or surpassed all performance requirements and delivered huge weight savings of 23,500kg to meet Consafe's challenging target, it also proved to be an outstanding success with the company's installers who found the products quicker to fit and easier to handle, especially around bulkheads and in difficult to access areas, where the light weight and flexibility made manoeuvring and fitting easy.
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