Crosbie Salamis Limited has been helping clients perform hot work on Offshore Installations such as Hibernia and Terra Nova. The Safe House Habitat is made from fire retardant panels that easily fit together to provide a pressurized environment that can prevent the need to shutdown productions. It is a stand-alone system not requiring tie-in to vessel gas detection or control systems. It is flexible to suit all applications, pipe/structural repairs, inspections and intrusive investigations. It is designed to provide a safe module in which hot work can be safely executed while the platform or plant is live and designed in such a way to be sealed around pipe work and equipment.
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The Safehouse is simple to install when using trained personnel. Depending on size approximately 5 to 10 hours for a 2-man crew. The roof panel is fixed to the outer scaffold or other support frame by means of the straps; thereafter the sides are fixed before the floor is installed. Scaffolds frames as well as permanent structures can be used to support the habitats during installation in all weather conditions. The habitat is sealed and fully self-supporting once pressurised.
The penetration panels allow pipe spools or pieces of equipment to pass through them up to 36” in diameter. These panels are then sealed from the outside environment. Special panels can be easily fabricated in the event that the particular application cannot be accommodated within the standard modules.
While hot work is in progress, an external fire-watch and a supply air standby man are required. These personnel should always have contact with the control room by radio. In the event of gas detection all hot work must cease, and operations personnel must focus on carrying out evacuation safely. Special habitat panels have been designed with this feature in mind to provide alternate escape routes.
During hot work in the habitat, the local exterior air supply and the source of ventilation air shall be continuously monitored with portable gas detectors; detection of gas shall result in a total cessation of hot work. High levels of gas detection anywhere on the installation or plant shall result in the manual termination of the hot work.
Air supplied to pressurize the habitat is brought in by air operated axial fans. Minimum of 50 Pascal’s is required to maintain pressure within the habitat.
