The intelligent offshore solution Apply Leirvik

units for the truck and bus industry – such as for Volvo’s Hybrid bus. Considering the company also serves the AGV market with specially equipped complete drives units this demonstrates a truly broad spread of application areas covered.

Innovative Solutions

With a wide range of electrical drives and generators, the portfolio includes complete hybrid systems optimized for high energy efficiency as well as single traction, pump and steering motors alongside motors for propulsion and steering.

“Our future high endproduct will be our permanent magnet synchronous motor/ generator” explains Mr. Haag. The product is maintenance free, high protection class (IP69), oil cooled and has an impressively high efficiency rate exceeding 95 per cent. These new modular concept motor/generators have a high torque density and a current power range of 17 – 200kW - with higher power levels being in the development stage. This motor almost fits on an A4 sheet and yet delivers 200kW of power. Many people see the machine and think they might be lucky to get 30-40kW out of it – they don’t believe their eyes when they look at the label!”

This motor has several potential applications from power generation or propelling traction drives to other uses as an auxiliary function.

Schabmüller is also driving forward the development of permanent synchronous motors for agricultural applications. Most implements in the agricultural market are still driven hydraulically but as Mr. Haag explains, “There will be a change from hydraulic to electric in the agricultural and construction market. A generator on the main machine would be useful as this would

provide a source of electricity, enabling the electrification of e.g. a spreader or trailer. The developments may take another 5-7 years in my opinion, but I would definitely expect to see this change around 2020.”

Future

Schabmüller’s plans for the future are confident and impressive. In their primary market - the material handling sector – Mr Haag expects sales to grow by approx. 20 per cent over the next 5 years. “Whether this is through gaining market share with new approaches or taking sales from our competition, in either case I see us growing substantially. We will also become more actively involved in the agricultural and construction machinery market”.

Currently 60 per cent of the company’s sales are Europe based, with the remaining 40 per cent going to the US (30 per cent) and Asia (10 per cent). Becoming part of the Italian ZAPI group – a recognised leader in advanced and sophisticated controller technology throughout the world - in 2012 has given Schabmüller access to an even bigger international network, with distribution centres in China and the US, and sales offices in the US, Italy, UK, Korea and China. “We obviously have huge potential to grow in our home countries and in the Asian markets.” explains Mr Haag. “China is the most attractive market at the moment. We established a facility near Shanghai to better serve our customers in China. With first assembly we will increase production for the local market, and then start a fully-fledged production process in China.”

And the company is not just looking to the East, ambitious plans also exist for another continent: “There are also very interesting developments in Brazil. In my opinion these will grow a lot in the future – I see a lot of potential in the new markets.” n

THE INTELLIGENT OFFSHORE SOLUTION

After 28 years as a shipbuilder Apply Leirvik changed course. Today it is the world’s leading supplier of aluminium living quarters for offshore platforms. Peter Mercer reports.

Apply Leirvik has been supplying living quarters modules for offshore platforms since 1974. In fact the Norwegian company has delivered most of the living quarters on the Norwegian shelf of the North Sea, many of them in aluminium, and in the North Sea as a whole, it has probably delivered more living quarters than all its competitors put together.

Today Apply Leirvik is one of the leading Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors for major offshore modules all over the world. From the beginning the company pioneered the use of aluminium in the construction of its modules. In fact, the living quarters module that it delivered to Saga Petroleum’s Snorre platform in the early 1990s was at that time the largest aluminium structure ever built for the offshore industry and became the basis for the company’s ongoing research and development programme on the use of aluminium in offshore modules.

“Before we moved into the offshore business 40 years ago we were a shipbuilding company with a lot of experience in constructing small fishing vessels in aluminium and we knew a great deal about its advantages,” explains Apply Leirvik CEO Lars Solberg. “A modern aluminium living quarters module is around 30 per cent lighter overall than a similar LQ module in steel structure and is much easier and cheaper to maintain. Imagine the difficulty of regularly sand-blasting and painting a steel structure that is as big as a nine storey hotel but is in the middle of the North Sea and battered by often appalling

weather. So we believe that the average price premium of aluminium over steel of around 8 per cent represents excellent value.

“There was perhaps some reluctance to embrace aluminium solutions at the beginning but it is now accepted internationally as a proven technology. The fact that we have a current contract from ExxonMobil for the living quarters for an offshore platform in Canada, the upper floors of which are entirely constructed in aluminium, proves that even the largest operators now recognise the advantages of our solutions.”

Engineering and construction

Apply Leirvik operates from two sites on the island of Stord, off the southwest coast of Norway. Its main construction site, covering around 112,000m2, and the second of 38,000m2 have the capacity to build and load-out constructions of more than 5,000 tonnes. The island location means that there are no restrictions on the sail-away route to the North Sea and to the rest of the world.

The Stord sites employ around 330 people who cover all the in-house engineering, procurement, construction and project management processes required to complete a living quarters module. In the Engineering, Procurement and Project Management department some 140 people work with FEEDs and conceptual and detail design across all relevant engineering disciplines while 150 people in the Construction department work with both aluminium and steel constructions.

“Even though the volume of our business in living quarter modules has grown very fast we have not needed to move from our original Leirvik home,” says Lars Solberg, “because we now sub-contract out an increasing part of the actual fabrication. We began essentially as welding experts but today our expertise is really in engineering and procurement. Our business in the refurbishment and rebuilding of accommodation modules across the world is also continuing to grow. In fact, around 10 per cent of our overall business today is concerned with extending the life of older living quarters.”

Customers who still prefer steel structures or who require structures in both aluminium and steel can be accommodated by Apply Emtunga AB in Sweden, another company within the Apply Group. Thanks to its standardised modular fabrication and assembly method, Apply Emtunga can deliver steel modular living quarters with considerably shorter lead times than with conventional construction processes.

Apply Leirvik has also developed an operation based in Singapore to supply relatively low-cost aluminium solutions for living quarters modules. Apply Leirvik International specialises in developing and delivering modular aluminium living quarters to the Asia Pacific region using the Norwegian company’s aluminium technology and Apply Emtunga’s modular production technology.

Also based in Singapore is another subsidiary, Aluminium Offshore, a specialist designer of aluminium helidecks, helipads and heliports for both offshore and landbased installations and buildings. Helidecks are transported from Singapore in knockdown form for easy installation anywhere in the world, from the North Sea to Australia.

“We are now the biggest provider of helidecks in the world and delivered 46 in 2013 alone,” explains Lars Solberg. “Currently 90 per cent of our helideck deliveries are in the Asia/Pacific region and in total this business now represents around 10 per cent of our revenue. We supply aluminium helidecks to vessels and terminals as well as to platforms and we are looking to expand this business in Europe too.”

North Sea experience

Apply Leirvik delivered its first accommodation module, to the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, over 35 years ago. That module is still in use by Statoil on the Statfjord A platform. Since then the company has delivered a total of 20 living quarters to Statoil with the latest – a 2000m2 module with 40 single cabins – being delivered to the Gudrun platform in 2012.

And this year saw the award of a contract to supply the 21st living quarters module to Statoil, for its Gina Krog field development in the Norwegian North Sea. The contract is from topside contractor Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and includes a new six floor aluminium living quarters module with a capacity for 70 single cabins, offices, recreation areas, change rooms, central control room and helicopter deck. The Gina Krog Living Quarters will be engineered and fabricated by Apply Leirvik at Stord.

“We are honoured that DSME and Statoil have chosen Apply for delivery of the Gina Krog Living Quarters,” says Lars Solberg.