ControlCutter awarded second place in DnB Nor's innovation award

posted 2011/09/13

ControlCutter was awarded second place out of 719 entries during at the national innovation award ceremony in Oslo after the 10 finalist companies presented. The winner was a breakthrough treatment for cancer, but ControlCutter was widely praised for the development of this crucial safety device for the offshore industry . In fact, ControlCutter only made the finals through a wild-card which not only shows how difficult it has been for the local and national juries to pick the three awarded companies, but is also a testament to the rapid progress ControlCutter has made in the 3 years of its development. But with this award, ControlCutter is not pausing to celebrate - it plans to have its first system installed on DOF Skandi Vega in early October.

ControlCutter is one of 10 finalists for the
DnB Nor - National innovation award

posted 2011/06/29

ControlCutter is one of the 10 finalists that will compete for the DnB Nor National innovation award in September. Petter Birkeland, CEO and founder of ControlCutter was contacted while on business trip in Brazil. “They called me 5 o’clock in the morning whereby I went back to sleep. When I woke up, I was uncertain if it was a dream and therefore had to check my email to confirm the very good news” he says. We are very happy to be part of this but understand that the competition will be hard. However we will do our best but also hope the public to help us win by giving us their vote. Use the link below to register your vote:

Click to vote

Tjerand Tveit employed as Senior Project Engineer

posted 2011/04/11

He has more than 20 years of experience from the oil industry within technology development and production. I am very happy that Tjerand has excepted this position and I am certain that this will strengthen the team working on the ControlCutter says Petter Birkeland, owner and managing Director of ControlCutter

First Installation

posted 2011/02/17

First installation of ControlCutter will commence in August where a system will be installed onboard the DOF Skandi Vega. For more information please contact Petter Birkeland.

Products

Control Cutter

Background

The sea can be an unforgiving place. Accidents happen, sometimes catastrophically. But we believe all accidents are preventable, and that is why we have developed the ControlCutter, a way to safely release even the largest anchor chains under extreme loads. During offshore operations, the strain on anchor lines can reach several hundred tons and, with the search for oil in ever deeper waters, these forces are likely to increase. For many years, the industry has been looking for ways to safely release an anchored or tethered vessel in an emergency. Since 1987, Norway has established a legal requirement that vessels should be able to safely release from high loads in less than 10 seconds - to-date, in the absence of technology to do this, all vessels apply for dispensation to exceed this law. The Norwegian Maritime Directorate is looking to shorten this time to less than 3 seconds.

Technology

The ControlCutter is an emergency device that has two individual systems that can individually, and collectively, cut a chain within a very short time. As a result, the ControlCutter consist of two knives that are placed opposite of each other, together with an inductive heating system.

The induction system, based on proven technology used in the casting industry, has been adapted into a unique coil that continuously surrounds the chain without interfering with the operation. After activation this coil will induce heat into the chain with temperatures higher than 900ºC, higher than the melting point of the chain. This process will continue until the power-activated knives are released to cut easily through the chain due to the softened nature of the metal.

Should the knives fail to activate, the heating process will continue until the chain or line breaks. Should the heating system fail, the knives alone can cut chains up to 160mm in less than 2 seconds - the knives are a unique alloy developed to resist the large forces that it will take to cut large chains.

Qualification

The ControlCutter has successfully undergone three major tests. The last test was performed in May 2010 as a full-scale system witnessed by DNV and Statoil. Its purpose was to qualify the system according to the legislations put forward in ISO 7365 from 1983 that, in 1987, become a law under the Norwegian legislation. According to the Norwegian Maritime Directorate, no one has been able to comply with this law because of the lack of technology.

Legislation

Existing legislation states that vessels should be able to release their weight within 10 second. Ref ISO 7365. New builds seek and obtain dispensations from this requirement because there is no product that meets the requirements. The Norwegian Maritime Directorate has recently put forward to IMO an amendment to the existing law that the 10 second should be reduced to 3 sec.

Pilot

The ControlCutter is now technically ready for the market. But we see it as very important that we complete our testing by installing a system permanently on a vessel to ensure harmonization with real-life operating conditions and practices. Together with six of the largest anchor handling ship owners, Statoil and IN, we will therefore be installing the first ControlCutter system onboard "the anchor vessel Skandi Vega in June 2011.

Patent