31 July 2007 Payback on Balmoral investment
Following a multi-million pound upgrade to its buoyancy manufacturing plant in Aberdeen, and the creation of more than 50 jobs in the past six months, Balmoral Offshore Engineering is beginning to see a return on its investment.
The company has installed a highly sophisticated manufacturing plant which enables it to design, manufacture and hydrostatically test a wide range of surface/subsurface buoyancy and elastomer products.
Dr Robert Oram, Balmoral Group’s technical director, explained the rationale behind the company’s investment: “Although Balmoral is well known for producing some of the most sophisticated buoyancy products on the market, and for massive production capacity, the company is perhaps less well known for its ability to process orders for smaller ‘off the shelf’ and niche-market type products.
“We decided to address these anomalies by introducing a range of new materials, ranging from thermoplastic syntactics for very large products used in shallow-medium depths, through standard syntactic foam systems to high performance cold cure syntactics for critical service and ultra-deep waters.
“These new materials, coupled with the new production facilities, allow us to manufacture a complete range of products from the smallest subsea float to the largest marine drilling riser buoyancy modules, and from surface navigation aids to buoyancy for ultra-deep water research vehicles.”
Mix and match buoyancy
Taking full advantage of the new plant, and demonstrating recognition of client demands for fast track solutions, the company has developed a range of modular buoyancy which can be called off at short notice.
Dr Oram said: “No two projects are identical and therefore it is extremely useful to be able to mix and match buoyancy modules that provide project engineers with the precise uplift required for a specific purpose without costly and time consuming design.
“Our new range of modular buoys provides this unique capability and we are delighted that a number of orders are now coming through as a result of this innovation.”
One of the most recent examples of this is a fast-track contract from Allseas to supply more than 60 modular buoys to facilitate the installation of subsea equipment in water depths to 1200msw as part of the Reliance Dhirbhai Project in India.
Secured by BOE’s Manchester office this order is seen as highly significant by the industry, as divisional sales director, David Clayton, explained: “There is a huge requirement for quick turnaround high quality buoyancy products. We relish challenge and this project demonstrates the step change in Balmoral's design and production capabilities very well.
“The partnership developed between Allseas and Balmoral was fundamental to the success of this project but the most important thing is that we helped a valued client achieve what it needed to achieve in a very short space of time.”
Pic: Dr Robert Oram, Balmoral’s technical director
