New high fatigue life shackle

The Crosby Group has pioneered a product innovation in the offshore mooring market with the introduction of the HFL Kenter, a new high fatigue life shackle, under the Crosby Feubo brand. The Crosby Group is a global leader and pioneer in offshore mooring components for the oil and gas and wind energy markets strengthened by the recent acquisition of Feubo in early 2020.

The new HFL Kenter shackle showcases design improvements on the established Crosby Feubo NDur Link, an accessory used for temporary and mobile mooring applications such as rigging and anchoring offshore platforms or vessels. The HFL, therefore, represents the latest, state-of-the-art evolution of the Kenter shackle concept, which is over 100 years old.

Oliver Feuerstein, global director of mooring at The Crosby Group, says, “The fatigue life is superior, and it can connect to a variety of stud link anchor chain or other mooring accessories such as sockets and swivels. This feature separates the Crosby Feubo solution from any other worldwide and was accomplished by making it from Grade 6 steel. A logical evolution from the Grade 4 Trident Slim and Grade 5 Raptor Crosby Feubo concepts.

“The new Kenter Connection is DNV-GL type approved and features the unique “Fastlock” system – proven to reduce project downtime and mitigate risk from conventional assembly/disassembly methods,” Feuerstein says.

The Crosby Group provides connectors for anchors, chains, wire rope, a range of synthetics, and a variety of other components that are used in many applications by oil and gas and wind energy professionals.

Feuerstein continues, “As many end-users and distributors of lifting and rigging gear will recognize, the HFL Kenter is a much better solution to alternative shackles, many of which are based on a Grade 4 concept that was launched in the 1980s.”

The importance of the experts in the R&D team was emphasised,  “The R&D on this product has been the most extensive in the Crosby Feubo’s history, from design, simulation, prototyping, to fatigue and break testing”, Feuerstein explains.

The HFL Kenter will be stocked in all key markets worldwide and Feuerstein noted that selling the product has gone faster than anticipated. “This says to us,” he explained, “That clients do not compromise on quality and safety; they want to source the best solution available to prevent failures in service that can result in millions of dollars of damage. We encourage clients to inspect equipment between jobs. With the HFL Kenter, our customers will have even longer fatigue life and even less retirements than the Ndur, which already proved incredibly durable.”

Feuerstein described the current mood among his customer base as “carefully optimistic”. He added: “The sentiment in the industry has been suffering by the global pandemic and a negative oil price. What we hear from our clients is that in 2022, oil and gas should be back on track and an increased demand on the renewable energy side. Offshore wind is growing rapidly in Europe and is one of our key markets. We will continue to develop and optimise our products and a number of new innovations will hit the market in 2021.”