Roustabout – Lifting Section. September 2010 Issue.  By Kathleen Hancock

Health and Safety at the Vessel – Installation Interface” was the topic of a joint seminar, held in Aberdeen on Sept.15th, where members of the Marine Safety Forum, Step Change in Safety and HSE representatives reviewed and discussed the implementation of the latest industry recommendations and procedures.

These included developments in technology and equipment aimed at enhancing safety at the point of vessel – installation interface.

It is universally recognized amongst offshore operators that the dynamic, and often unpredictable, nature of the marine environment amplifies the risks and hazards associated with vital offshore lifting operations for supply, construction and cargo transfers. While there have been many improvements in recent years offshore lifting operations remain accountable for the highest proportion of incidents, including dropped objects and near misses which highlight the need for continued focus on these high risk operations. A common perspective is required, from both the vessel and installation operators, to align the perceived hazards and associated risk levels that have been identified for the individual tasks such that a common understanding and methodology is achieved.

Risk analysis and task assessments should pay particular attention to the following areas which have been identified as the key elements requiring constant review in order to effectively reduce the risk of serious incidents during lifting operations.

• Communications – establish clear and uninterrupted communications lines between installation and support vessel deck crews, Voice any concerns.
• Procedures – follow concise operating procedures for heavy or extraordinary lifts and ensure that all the tasks have been properly risk assessed and are clearly understood by all participants.
• Best Practice – implement Industry recommended best practices for the safe handling of cargo offshore, observe your obligations under HSE and compliance regulations.
• Equipment – ensure all lifting equipment has correct certification and the testing requirements are current and verify that your equipment in service is fit for purpose.
• Awareness – HSE and Compliance Managers should be aware of the obligations under HSE - PUWER regulations, developments in new equipment, provision of the safest equipment as best practice.

Focus on Lifting Equipment

The newer generation of offshore drilling rigs, drilling vessels, FPSO’s and installations are equipped with ever larger, modern and efficient cranes with an increased capacity in whip line load ratings, winch speeds, and automated load monitoring systems. The increased load capacity of the crane whip line has a flow on effect for the deck crews, both on the installation and support vessels, who have to physically handle proportionally larger crane “stingers” and “safety hooks” at the actual point of contact between the vessel and installation.

The additional weight and size of this “hands on” equipment compounds the risk of potentially serious injury to the personnel conducting these operations which are known to be one of the higher risk tasks undertaken in the dynamic offshore environment.

Traditional “Safety Hooks” – How Safe are they?

Common “latch lock” style lifting hooks, illustrated below, have been in use throughout industry since the mid 1970’s, these traditional “safety hooks” were an improvement on previously used “open hooks”.

Somewhat ironically this style of lifting hooks are universally known, and marketed under various brands, as “safety hooks” yet it is obvious the “latch lock” design incorporates the same basic inherent safety hazard as all previous hook designs which is that an operator must place their fingers or hand within the hazardous hook/sling interface region in order to control, open or operate the hook during lifting operations!

This inherent design hazard is directly responsible for many serious injuries over the past 35 years as attested by numerous cases of severed fingers and severe lacerations as a result of an operators fingers or hand becoming trapped between the hook body and the sling or master link when the weight has suddenly come back onto the hook. This is a very common situation for support vessel crews in the dynamics of the offshore lifting environment.

Traditional latch lock style hook

Amongst offshore personnel latch lock hooks are notorious for inflicting minor pinch and trap injuries which are known in the industry as “shackle bites”. Wrist strain is another common complaint which is attributable to the operating motion which requires repetitive bending of the wrist in a forward and down motion in order to operate the hooks. These common injuries and incidents generally go unreported and the resulting bruised or fat fingers are considered as operator error, one being too slow to get their fingers clear when loading, discharging or controlling the hooks!

In addition to the immediate, and obvious, operator safety hazards latch lock hooks have shown to be susceptible to wear in the locking mechanism area which, over a period of time, has lead to potentially very dangerous situations whereby, under certain circumstances, the lock mechanism fails to keep the hooks locked closed and the hooks open by themselves.  Failure is known to happen when the weight comes off the hook quickly as it is landed on the deck or hard surface.

This undesirable situation is well documented, many operators and drilling contractors have experienced unexpected and costly delays during rig shifts when anchor pennants have been lost overboard during transfer to the AHV due to the latch lock hooks having opened by themselves as the hook and wire pennant is landed on the deck of the AHV and prior to being secured by the deck crew.  The resulting “over the side” pennant recovery operation presents further risks to installation and vessel personnel, as well as operational delays and the unwelcome additional expense of costly “rig downtime”.

The majority of operators in the offshore sector have experienced some, if not all, of these types of incidents and safety issues which can be directly attributed to the inherent safety hazards in the design and operation of traditional latch lock type lifting hooks.

Developments and Technical Advances

Local Aberdeen company, Nautilus Rigging Ltd, whose Managing Director and designer, Mr Bill Toon, having had first hand experience of the hazards of traditional hooks recognised the need to develop a new style of safety hooks with the aim of eliminating the inherent hazards associated with traditional hooks. His initial concepts were developed over a four year research and development period which included a very successful industry sponsored offshore field trial and culminated with the launch of the highly acclaimed “Nautilus Hooks” range of self locking safety hooks in September 2009 at Offshore Europe in Aberdeen.

The Nautilus Hook Design

This well thought out and technically advanced design has eliminated the safety and operational issues associated with traditional latch lock style hooks.

In comparing the traditional and Nautilus Hook designs the immediate operator safety benefits are obvious. In practice the simplicity and ease of operation adds to its effectiveness which is further enhanced by a multitude of innovative and unique features.

Incorporated in this new style of safety hooks are:

• Integral safety handle – This unique feature has obvious safety benefits and totally eliminates the risk of pinch and trap injuries by removing operators’ fingers from the hazardous interface area. The handle space is free of any moving parts providing the operator complete control of the hook at all times without worrying about getting their fingers trapped and provides a simple one handed operation.

• Sliding Lock Mechanism - A very clever innovation is the dual sided locking slide, it can be operated by either left or right handed users and is completely protected within a recessed housing, it can be operated easily with either thumb or finger as the lock slide is never subjected to load whether the hook is under load or not.

• Rotational Action - The configuration between the handle and the lock slide actuator provides a “front on” approach and a rotational arm action to operate the hook which eliminates the heavy wrist bending action required for traditional hooks.This unique operating motion provides a much easier operation and gives the hooks avery light “feel” which is maintained even in the larger size hooks.·

• Internal Load Bearing Profile – The internal load bearing profile has been tested and redesigned to allow simple discharge of the load slings or master link for a quicker operation that eliminates the need to “jump” the master link out of the load bearing area.

• Smooth External Profile – By incorporating the lock mechanism within a separate recessed housing the design eliminates any lock protrusions to the outer profile of the hook which reduce the possibility of “snagging” the hooks in use.

• Quality Assurance – Nautilus Hooks are DNV type approved as fit for purpose, they are CE certified to BS/EN1677-1 A1:2008 and each individual hook is proof tested to 2.5 times the WLL prior to shipment.

An analysis of the operational and safety characteristics of these two different styles of safety hooks clearly shows a positive technical advancement, indeed a new safety standard, has been achieved with the Nautilus design of safety hooks.Embracing the use of this safer and advanced lifting hardware will provides the impetus for apositive step change in safety for the offshore and wider industrial communities and will ensure your organisations compliance with respect to your obligations for the provision and use of lifting equipment under HSE – PUWER 98 regulations.

Commenting after the seminar Mr Toon said “With 20 years background in the offshore sector I recognise the safety issues and the risks that offshore personnel face every day during lifting operations, having witnessed a serious injury to a crew member using a traditional hook provided the impetus for my personal commitment to develop a new type of lifting hook that would eliminate the inherent hazards of traditional hooks. I am absolutely delighted that the design and function of Nautilus Hooks exceeds my initial safety and design criteria, we have developed a real “Safety Hook.”

“Since launching the product a year ago we have experienced a fantastic and international response to Nautilus Hooks, we continue to receive very positive feedback from operators in the offshore sector who were quick to adopt the products having recognised the immediate safety benefits for their employees, in fact, the safety benefits of these hooks are equally applicable in any applications that use traditional hooks. We are supplying Nautilus Hooks to clients in the construction, mobile crane, mining and shipping industries as well as the offshore sector.There is a growing demand from our expanding network of international distributors and we are currently expanding our manufacturing capability to meet these demands for this award winning and proven safety initiative”

“Safety, it’s in your hands!” Mr Toon said.