It took TP-Products 4 years of engineering to develop structural flanges that are the perfect companion for the wind industry for use in floaters, transition pieces and wind turbine towers. Early October the flanges received Approval in Principle from DNV. TP-Products as well as major players in the wind industry have been working together in order to find ways for optimising flange solutions in the industry. TP-Products’ first contract using this new flange technology was received in spring 2022 from Ocergy Inc. The flanges were intended for use in their OCG – Data Pilot named ”Buoy with Lidar and Underwater Equipment for Ocean Resource Assessment and Characterisation of Life in the Environment (BLUE ORACLE), partly sponsored by ADEME (the French Agency for Ecological Transition)”. The buoy will be equipped with TP-Products’ structural compact flanges. This will be the first project making use of this new technology in primary structural members in a floating environment.

“This is a great achievement for us, on our way to implement our solutions in floating wind structures, transition pieces and turbine towers”, says Sjur Lassesen, Technical Director in TP-Products.

TP-Products’ patented structural flange solutions are stronger, weigh less and make use of smaller bolts compared to traditional flat L-flange solutions that are currently used in the wind industry. Using TP-Products’ compact flange technology in these critical connections solves the fatigue problems encountered under extreme dynamic loadings, particularly occurring in offshore floating wind turbine structures. The solutions can cope with the challenges the wind industry is facing today such as larger turbines and restriction on transportation dimension on land. That’s why the industry needs stronger towers with smaller overall dimensions, and this can be perfectly achieved with TP-Products’ compact flange solutions. In addition, the floating industry is specifically looking for efficient solutions to ease assembly. With the bolted flange solutions, the assembly time compared to welded solutions can be reduced drastically. TP-Products’ flanged solutions are also maintenance free, so operational expenditures can be brought down to a minimum.