SolidWorks UK Training, Support and Seminars from Innova Systems. Solidworks 2010.

Orwell Offshore provides Naval Architecture, Offshore Construction, Marine Consultancy and Offshore Engineering Consultancy services from its offices in Woodbridge, Suffolk UK and Singapore. Using SolidWorks, Orwell Offshore have completed some very impressive projects, including the latest Calm Buoy.

Calm buoys are often employed as offshore loading facilities for transferring oil from an onshore or offshore location to an oil tanker, or from an oil tanker to a reception facility. These types of buoys are so named because they employ anchor chains to hold the buoy generally in place. An advantage of these buoys is that they do not require construction of a costly jetty or dock for mooring the oil tankers.

However, since offshore loading facilities are often located in unprotected waters, the buoys must be designed to accommodate and withstand great environmental forces produced by large swells or waves, high winds and/or strong currents. These environmental forces can become particularly fierce when the buoy is placed in a very shallow location because the waves tend to build up and become very steep before they break in the shallow water

(To get a feel for scale, there is man walking up the stairs and next to the red door above the blue platform)

"Basically it will be the largest Calm buoy on the Planet" says Chris Wilson, Senior Technical Designer at Orwell offshore. "The centre hull is moored to the sea bed via 6 x 128mm mooring chains. The outer ring structure is allowed to rotate around the centre Hull on a 3m dia bearing. The oil tanker hooks up to the buoy via the fairlead on the right side of the model so when wind or tide changes , the structure is pulled round by the ship so always facing into the weather. Oil is extracted from the well head, up through the buoy and out to the oil tanker via the centre platform with pipework. The left hand platform is for crew to enter via a boat landing.

Orwell Offshore made the transition to SolidWorks guided by SolidWorks experts Innova Systems - and the results are just amazing. Apart from the obvious benefit of producing stunning renderings to impress customers, SolidWorks has delivered some great results.

The design team have made use of SolidWorks' powerful "Top Down design functionality", which helps designers to model in the context of the complete assembly. This results in products going together "right first time" when assembled. The Steel members that provide the structural integrity have been primarily created using the Weldments functionality and the ability to make changes with the drawings keeping up to date, means projects are delivered on time. Orwell Offshore need the ability to get quick, accurate results during the tendering process.

Orwell Offshore have taken advantage of on site customised training, to make sure the most productive techniques are being used for this size and complexity of structure.

"Thanks again to you and all your team for the continued technical support. It would have been a lot harder to do this without your help" said Chris.

These are some impressive results from the team at Orwell offshore. We all know that our customers enjoy seeing their products before orders are placed and manufacturing starts. These images help to get expectations clearly set from both sides and helps to ensure any errors are kept to a absolute minmum.