Sandia Labs seeks input on power take-off and mooring lines

The U.S. Sandia National Laboratories is seeking input on power take-off (PTO) and mooring lines for marine energy applications.

Sandia is requesting input from researchers and developers to help understand the testing needs around PTO and mooring lines, as well as umbilical cable reliability for marine energy applications.

The request for input comes as part of the WPTO-funded Power Take-off (PTO) and Mooring Lines Reliability Testing Facility project.

As part of this project, Sandia aims to develop a facility in 2022 that enables short and long-term testing to understand the mechanical properties and technical limitations of ropes, belts, and cables used for marine energy applications.

The new facility will leverage the instrumentation and testing systems of the Sandia Wave Energy Power Take-Off (SWEPT) lab.

According to Sandia, the project will also focus on testing the stitching or clamping at the end of the belt or rope, which was identified as a potential weak link in a previous study.