The mooring chain products are mainly used for the mooring and positioning of offshore drilling and production facilities. It is known that currently, mooring chains are classified into several grades based on their mechanical performance, including R3, R3S, R4, R4S, and R5. For a long time, the production of marine mooring chains has only followed the R3 standard of the United States. China was the first to break the foreign monopoly of R3. The R6 mooring chain is the fifth-generation high-tech product developed after the R5 mooring chain, representing the highest level of manufacturing technology in the current mooring chain industry. It is a key research and development focus of the "High-tech Ship Research Project Reserve Database" - the technology for marine engineering equipment, and also a key supporting equipment for modern manufacturing of "High-tech Ships and Marine Engineering Equipment" in China.
Over the past decade, the international demand for energy has continued to rise, while onshore oil reserves have decreased as the extraction increases. Offshore oil exploration and exploitation have developed rapidly, and the operation depth has shifted from shallow seas to depths of 3,000 meters or more below the sea surface. As a result, the demand for marine engineering equipment such as oil drilling platforms, oil storage facilities, and offshore engineering vessels has sharply increased. China has mastered the independent design and construction technology for major marine oil and gas development equipment, and the mooring chain, as one of the supporting devices, has also achieved localization. However, the performance of the existing products is already close to the limit, and it is urgently necessary to develop higher-grade products. Otherwise, China will lose its global technological leadership position in this field.
The higher the mooring chain grade, the higher the requirements for material innovation and process control accuracy, the higher the safety factor, and the broader the market application prospects.