4 June 2008 A ROVing we will go Balmoral Offshore Engineering has continued to develop its activities in the ROV marketplace and has made significant progress with new clients and new technologies.
The huge UT-1 trenching vehicle being designed and constructed by SMD-Hydrovision on behalf of CTC Marine Projects Ltd is the largest swimming trenching vehicle
built to date.
The buoyancy requirement was significant at a final delivered buoyancy of 36Te of uplift. It is believed that the four main modules at the core of the vehicle are the largest composite buoyancy modules ever moulded.
David Clayton, BOE sales director, said: “Our team in Heywood worked closely with SMD-Hydrovision and CTC Marine Projects Ltd to ensure all project parameters were met.
“UT-1 is an ‘industry-first’ and we were pleased to have been part of it.”
Current worldwide ROV construction is considerable; BOE has, in the last 12 months, supplied new buoyancy for the Icarus vehicles in Norway, Hector 7 and RovJets in France, 10 sets of FCV vehicles to Singapore as well as servicing the home market. Operating depths have ranged from 1500-3000msw.
New ROV buoyancy provides options
Balmoral’s new high performance low density composite is now available with two standard grades offered. The LD3000PF is a 450kg/m3 system rated for 3000msw service, while the LD6000PF is a 510kg/m3 system rated for 6000msw service.
The improved low density materials allow for increased levels of uplift within a defined volume. These advantages can be used in a number of ways such as reducing vehicle dimensions or increasing uplift without changing the overall dimensions, or both!
These high performance materials are now being specified in the construction of tooling pack and ROV buoyancy
