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Sheffield Forgemasters’ specialist offshore technology and project management division, Vulcan SFM, has despatched the heaviest casting it has ever produced for offshore use.

The company, which leads the world in high-strength castings and forgings for use in rigs and other constructions for offshore oil and gas exploration, has released the second and final 100 tonne cast-node, part of a £3m contract with Dutch company Heerema, for use in the North Sea’s largest gas field.

The castings will form high strength and fatigue resistant nodal joints to connect the main leg and brace tubulars which make up the jacket of an offshore oil platform.

The castings have an integral trunnion and with these and two other castings also supplied by Sheffield Forgemasters the massive 9,200 tonne jacket for the Valemon platform will be lifted and rotated onto its mooring location.

No other company in the world has the experience of manufacturing such complex safety-critical offshore castings and it is this pedigree which has seen Vulcan SFM complete a successful 2010/2011 financial year, breaking targets for new orders by nearly £18m.

Ian Nicholls, Managing Director of Vulcan SFM, said: “The cast nodes for Heerema are part of a six-casting contract to supply the nodes, padeyes and hubs which will be the sole lifting points for the Valemon jacket when it is installed for service on the Valemon gas and condensate field, off the coast of Norway.

“The jacket will weigh more than 9,000 tonnes when it is lifted into place and it will then support a deck of around 10,000 tonnes so these components are not only lifting a lot of weight in one direction, they will be supporting an even higher weight once the deck is installed.

“The castings are made in a specially developed material offering a balance of strength toughness and weldability. The strength is developed through heat treatment involving water quenching and this is the biggest casting we have ever quenched, which has been made possible by the investments we have made in our quenching facilities.

“The castings are designed by Vulcan SFM to handle immense stresses when in use and the nodes we have manufactured over a twenty five year period of supply into offshore use, have a zero failure rate.”

Vulcan SFM specialises in producing castings for fixed and floating production units - including structural and heavy lift castings as well as mooring components, tendon porch and deck stool castings, insert nodes and pile lug cans.

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