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Electronic Chips for
offshore Drilling Pipes
Electronic chips, which are activated upon
activation of electronic power, have proven
useful in many connections. This chip
technology has been used innovatively in a
project of development which Offshore Center
Danmark has been project manager on for 4
years now.
The project develops an electronic chip for
drilling pipes, so-called RF/ID tags, which
are able to handle extreme long-term mechanical
stress under HP/HT drilling conditions
in the North Sea. In an incubator-style
set up, alarms technology specialist Laybourn
Trading & Technology - a one-man operation
- teamed up with Maersk Contractors
through Offshore Center Danmark to advance
development of a chip that could stand 300
bar/178°C conditions, while sending out an ‘I
72 Offshore Center Danmark
Yearbook 2008
am chip number’ signal for use in identifying
age, use, and service record of individual
drilling pipes.
The company Laybourn Trading from Gilleleje
was an expert in the use of modern chip
technology, and is now also operating in the
offshore oil/gas industry. Following the fi rst
2 years of project research and development,
Laybourn Trading together with Offshore
Center Danmark and Maersk Contractors
during the past 2 years have tested the use
of chips to unambiguously register thousands
of drilling pipes, which are used
when drilling for oil and gas. Every single
drilling pipe is provided with an electronic
chip, which is automatically read
when the pipe is taken in use. That means
that the drilling pipe now unambiguously
can be identifi ed, where after all the data
of the pipe are getting available for the
drilling operator. In that way use, wear,
servicing and maintenance of the drilling
pipes can be optimized, with considerable
savings as result.
The road towards this innovative use of
the chip technology was long and challenging.
A large number of in-situ tests