New BV guidelines on W2W systems

摘要

Class society Bureau Veritas (BV) has developed a set of guidelines covering walk-to-work (W2W) motion-compensated systems, used to safely connect crew vessels to offshore platforms and wind turbines. The recently published Guidance Note NI629, Certification of Offshore Access Systems, delves into the technical requirements for the design, manufacturing and deployment of such systems. The note also makes a clear distinction between passive transfer gangways (in which the system is connected to the offshore installation, then put in free-flow mode for personnel transfer) and active transfer gangways (which remain motion-compensated throughout the ship-to-structure personnel transfer process), for which critical components vary.