Harsco gets ship shape in Scotland

Harsco Infrastructure chose mast climbing equipment for a major ship refurbishment project in Scotland.

Harsco provided six, twin-mast, Alimak Hek MSHF, mobile mast climbing units which were used to clean, repair, blast and repaint the 66,538 tonne Hæwene Brim – a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel owned and operated by international oil specialist, Bluewater Energy Services B.V.

Muehlhan Surface Protection Ltd, sub-contractor for Bluewater, brought in the scaffolding and access provider to complete the job at Nigg Yard, near Invergordon.

“Given that this was a time-critical project, using scaffolding to provide access was not practical as it would have taken far too long to install and then strike,” explained Harsco’s site service manager, Joe Smith. “There would also have been issues with the space required to construct the scaffold. However, mast climbers were ideal as they could be put into place in a fraction of the time.”

Each platform was 25 m long, and stood freely on a mobile chassis, reaching heights of 25 m. Each had a top tie installed for additional support.

Muehlhan operators were provided with uninterrupted access to the ship’s hull for the required work, which included high-pressure cleaning and shot blasting, and took 26 days to complete.