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Vallourec’s offshore foundation system PREON® marine is the first foundation technology to be tested in the new Test Center for Support Structures at Leibnitz University of Hannover, Germany.

Inaugurated in September 2014, the Test Center for Support Structures includes a 10 meters deep foundation engineering pit and a 20 meters high hall. It will test load-bearing structures as well as foundations of wind turbines.

PREON® marine is lighter and makes building foundations easier than common structures by which offshore turbines are anchored today. Instead of driving piles up to 60 meters deep into the ground, the piles of the Vallourec construction require only about 20 meters of foundation and their outside diameter also is substantially smaller than that of the marine piles used so far.

The tests are supposed to confirm the mathematical proof that the structure withstands the rough conditions of the sea and accelerate the commercialization of Vallourec’s PREON® marine system.

Press Release, October 06, 2014