Mobile offshore drilling platform with retractable piles - has cushions between pile climbing mechanism and pontoon pressurised when pontoon is floating

Abstract

Abstract The platform comprises a pontoon with floats and a number of piles movable up and down in the pontoon and lockable. Each pile has a climbing mechanism supported on the pontoon via elastic devices. These devices consist of pressurised cushions between pontoon and climbing mechanism, and each pressurised by the wt. of the pile when the pontoon is floating. One or more hydraulic rams are also mounted between pontoon and mechanism, each connected to a pressure accumulator. The ram stroke can be greater than, and pref. a multiple of, that of the cushion.

Inventors

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