Conti adapts converyor belts for off-shore windfarms

ERJ staff report (DS)

Hannover, Germany -- ContiTech says there is a healthy market for heavy rubber mats used to protect the sea bed around the masts of offshore wind farms. The company has adapted Its conveyor belt technology to fill this new need.

The mats prevent scouring. As tidal flows swirl around the base of the mast, eddies and currents scour away the sand and rock on the sea bed. The rubber mat protects the bed from this action, safeguarding the environment. .

The ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group has developed a brand-new method. “Strictly speaking, this solution involves a mat made of fabric belts with a thickness of 12 mm to 15 mm, an outer diameter of 11 m to 52 m, edge weights of 100 kg to 200 kg per meter and a profiled surface to promote the deposition of sand,” explains Michael Möschen, application engineer in the Engineered Products segment of the ContiTech Conveyor Belt Group..

“Our scour-prevention mats have weights on their ends that anchor them onto the seafloor. So no matter how strong the current, the mats remain unaffected,” says Möschen. In 2009, developers of the ContiTech Conveyer Belt Group at the Deltares Institute in the Netherlands simulated extreme storms and streams. The result: The scour-prevention mat and the seabed under it remained intact.

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Press release from ContiTech