Angle Ring drives wind of change in UK energy sector
Dovetailing with the UK government’s plans for Britain to lead the world in the £4 trillion global market for low carbon environmental goods and services, The Angle Ring Company of Tipton, West Midlands, Europe’s market leader in pipe and plate bending, recognised wind power as a significant potential market as far back as 2003.
Since then, Angle Ring has identified key components in the renewable energy supply chain where its specialist bending services are needed and is now supplying to fabricators of wind and tidal equipment on projects that are reaching full fruition.
One such project, part of the Crown Estates’ ‘Round One’ cycle of wind facilities and one of the most ambitious of its kind ever undertaken in Britain, is an offshore wind and gas farm located in the Irish Sea, ten kilometres off the coast of Walney Island near Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, completed in 2011.
A WORLD FIRST
Angle Ring’s involvement in the project is a vital one in supplying J tube induction bends to Burntisland Fabrications Limited that provide protective sleeves for the power cables deployed from each of the thirty 5MW turbines to the shore.
The facility is to be the world’s first full scale wind farm with this design of jacket substructure.
MORE TIP-TOP WORK FROM TIPTON
Angle Ring’s experience in successfully executing similar contracts for other major offshore wind facilities, coupled with its unrivalled expertise in hot induction bending and cold bending techniques, and its experience in supplying bends and curves for access/mooring structures and wind tower access doors to the wind energy/energy renewables markets, clinched the contract with Burntisland.
The carbon steel bends were produced on Angle Ring’s 24-inch induction bending machine at its Tipton facility, operating well within its full capacity of up to 36-inch NB pipe.
The jackets themselves are currently under construction at Burntisland’s Methil factory in Fife.
Comments Angle Ring Business Development Manager Robert Bunting: “The Irish Sea project is a further example of how The Angle Ring Company’s innovative bending techniques and unrivalled capabilities are helping to make a significant difference in the field of renewable energy”.