Home > News
Latest news
Floating hose offers offshore many advantages
Imbema Cleton B.V., supplier of offshore bunkering hoses to the offshore industry for many years, introduces the self floating bunker hose.
Within the offshore industry bulk hose handling is still an activity with potential risks and possible hazardous situations. Nevertheless supply of potable water, diesel, mud and chemicals is indispensable for the process and people on the platforms. Fortunately it has become more and more safe and environmental friendly i.e. due to the current configuration of the bulk hose with dry-break and break-away couplings and lifting hooks. Despite this and strict handling and operations procedures incidents still occur with potential danger for crew, equipment and environment. 
Suggestions for improvement in opinion of a risk assessment is to improve the floating bulk hoses, the PL Floating hose for offshore. The current configuration of the floating bulk hoses is with flotation collars and this isn’t perfect. Disadvantages are possible slippage of collars, unfriendly for the crew during handling the hose over the railing and possible pollution of the collars by seaweed. A properly floating bulk hose also allows a safe and bigger distance between supplier and platform without the risk the hose ends up into the prop of the supplier. For these reasons the offshore industry invited Imbema Cleton in 2009 to design a bulk hose with a self floating property.
Thanks to our knowledge of hoses and the possibilities of our manufacturers, Imbema Cleton successfully introduced the self floating bulk hose for delivery of potable water, fuels, mud or chemicals. The self floating hose is designed as a flexible connection between ship and platform with the necessary buoyancy by itself. The buoyancy position on the hose is fixed and tuned for the specific application. The configurations of the hose is custom-made like total length of the hose, length and position of the buoyancy and sufficient for the conveyed fluid. The self floating hose is available in the size 2” up to 6” and with a maximum length of 80 meters. The hose could be assembled with swaged on the usual couplings within the offshore industry. An extra possibility is to configure the hose with ultraviolet cover pieces for a better visibility of the hose during darkness.
