Soft-Skin Chain-Through Buoys technical drawings, and tables of weights, buoyancy, and standard sizes.
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Osaka’s soft
skin chain through buoys have an empty steel pipe core, where either a chain is
already attached and has two shackle ends to be connected to the main chain
line, or can be left empty so it can go through inside a chain or a cable,
which can be used for different applications, such as support.
Their
resilient soft skin exterior provides strong resistance to impact and harmful
environments, reducing maintenance needs and ensuring long-lasting performance
in offshore applications.
NOTE: Weight in kg. Measurements in mm.
These are our standard dimensions, after product customization deviation margins might apply.
Our smallest sizes of Chain Through Buoys are typically between 1 Ton and 2,2 Tons net buoyancy, which can be achieved with buoys as small as 1 and 1,5 m in diameter. These are typically used on smaller mooring lines, as a support component of fish farms in the aquaculture industry. They distribute the load equally or as desired across the chains connecting longer rows of fish farm cages, and thanks to their superior design and durability from Osaka, they are ideal for farms exposed to all sorts of weather conditions, including the harsher weathers. They are also commonly used for floating marine barriers or floating booms. Smaller sizes are also available at Osaka Industry, as they are very useful in other industrial applications and for fishing boats and in private markets, although we would usually recommend our other product, our spherical buoys, which are able to achieve even lower ranges of buoyancy, are easier to transport and install, and are a product that we work with just as much as this.
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These sizes are our most commonly requested models from this serie of buoys, starting at 2,7 T and up to 4,5 T, and they are used for most standard applications in the offshore and Oil & Gas industry. These sizes can be reliably used on general mooring chain support in the Offshore, such as for oil rigs or tanker ships, even for SPM (Single Point Mooring) anchoring or in ancilliary larger systems, or in any application where a class certified offshore chain of grade R4, R4, or the needed grade, has to pass directly through the buoy, and this one needs to be able to move free in the event of a drastic chain movement or other scenarios.
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The 5.5 T buoy is the largest standard size of this type of chain-through buoy, and is typically employed in the larger offshore applications. For even larger sizes, we would recommend other types of support buoys that we have available on our website, or to directly contact our team who will present you a tailored commercial and technical proposal, completely adapted to your project requirements. These even larger options can achieve a range between 10 tons to even 50 tons of net buoyancy. For special offshore projects where 100 Tons or more is necessary, our modular chain through support buoys, our finest piece of technology in the field of Offshore Buoyancy, simply send an email to osaka@osakaindustry.com and let us do the rest.
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Offshore Industry Compliance:
End to End certification makes a difference, Chain-Through buoys, particularly our larger models are typically employed in offshore operations, where mistakes are far too expensive for them to happen. Our buoy certification is carried out in every single batch that we produce, and is tailored to meet the needs of even the most specialized clients and industries. Our testing is independent, our buoys are sent to highly specialized testing facilities with laboratory equipment, provides the inspection or test results to us, and with that data we are able to create the different types of product certificates needed for every chain-through buoy.
ISO 9001:2015 Quality Assurance:
Both our QA Office, the full production and manufacture facilities, and the independent testing facilities that are hired on every order, meet the extensive but fundamental requirements of ISO 9001:2015, which is the foundation of Quality Assurance. This ensures that our staff has the right tools, the necessary competences, and is basically capable to track and maintain the high standard of quality that Osaka Industry is known for.
quality@osakaindustry.com
Adjusting Standard Soft Skin Chain-Through Buoys:
We have a set of standard sizes that our production is used to work with. These sizes are the most widely used by our customers, they are the fastest to make, the fastest to test and certify, and 9 out of 10 times they might be the just the right fit for your project. These sizes or models are easily customizable, they can be made a little bit larger or wider of longer, they can be modified on any parameter, so that 1 out of 10 times that a standard size does not fit, or when we want to ensure compliance with any other requirement, the buoy that we deliver to you does, and is calculated to fit to perfection.
Purchasing Custom Chain-Through Buoyancy:
Sometimes, particularly in the Offshore Wind or Offshore Oil & Gas Industry, we deal with extreme scales or requirements. A buoy might need a special material, a custom filling, a different shape of the end flanges or connection, or sometimes simply a size beyond any standard scale. Osaka Industry is specialized in all of these situations. This is because we have total control over the complete manufacturing process, something that very few companies are going to explicitly and publicly state to this scale. Every detail matters, and Osaka Industry is willing and capable to customize every single aspect of our buoys until they satisfy you as a customer, and meet your expectations.
Know What to Avoid:
Custom design must be backed by engineering, and most important of all by experience. Osaka Industry has a dedicated dataset containing the information of all our projects, specific technical requirements, drawings, measurements, conditions, and countless variables. This is extremely valuable experience, and it allows us to make a custom design that is backed by years of success across different fields of industry. Any manufacturer can make a buoy a little bit longer or thicker, but you as a customer would still have no guarantee that it would work. Anyone can even issue a sloppy certificate, carry out a few meaningless tests to the buoy, gather the data, and then claim that the buoy is certified. Osaka understands that if your mooring line is so specialized that a standard size is simply not good enough for it, a customized design must be very specific and accurate, because sometimes small mistakes may cause great damage to larger and infinitely more expensive systems, such as an FPSO ship. The only recommendation that we can make is just as you must compare prices between suppliers, compare their experience, compare their explicit statements of expertise and whether they are backed by objective measures such as datasets, or whether they may be simply generic fluff statements. It simply takes a few extra minutes to get your design fully customized to your requirements, let Osaka's technical department handle your inquiry:
technical@osakaindustry.com
Good design is backed by good materials. Our certification is End to End because we use certified materials, such as foams and polyurethanes that meet different ISO or ASTM standards. Thanks to this our Chain-Through buoys are certified to meet some of the toughest maritime requirements in the World, such as the US Coastguard.
Rigid Internal Core:
Chain-Through buoys need a special tubular core, since the chain or the cable will pass through it, which is why it is fundamental that it is completely rigid and extremely resistant, in order to allow a free flow through the chain. Lower quality or buoys without End to End certification may bend to harsh pressure and get stuck in the chain, which can cause extreme infrastructure and economic damages.
Enclosed Foam Core:
This is the main buoyant element, it is a specialized urethane foam that provides the flotation. The Osaka design is smarter, as it places this specific foam which is hard and rigid surrounding the steel core, in order to achieve an even more resistant design, capable of withstanding even the harshest conditions and prevents the pipe from bending or cracking.
Bonding Foam Layer:
This specialized foam is the bond between the foam core and the outer skin, it is very flexible and has excellent impact absorption capabilities, protecting the core even from impacts in extreme conditions.
Outer Soft Skin:
This is the layer exposed to the environment and direct humidity. Due to its importance Osaka has taken the choice to make it a deliberately wide layer. It is highly reinforced with helix filaments wrapped in a particularly tight way across the ends, to achieve Osaka's special elastic properties that allow the buoy to last longer and resist harsher conditions.
technical@osakaindustry.com
