Dive system providers are developing bespoke solutions for subsea vessel owners
Looking to offer integrated diving solutions on its vessels, Singapore-based POSH Subsea inked a deal in January with Unique Group to design, manufacture and deliver classed air and saturation dive systems.
Over the next two years, Unique Group will supply classed air and saturation diving equipment, compliant to the stringent Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) 468 and International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) guidelines, as well as consumables and technical support during and post installation.
POSH Subsea, a unit of PACC Offshore Services Holdings Ltd, operates specialised vessels capable of supporting subsea inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM), construction and installation.
To minimise operational downtime, Unique Group is supporting the contract with its Unique Equipment Manager (UEM), a digitalised planned maintenance system that integrates with the dive systems to enable POSH to track the condition of the equipment more accurately.
Subsequent to its contract with POSH Subsea, Unique Group secured an order from Kazakhstan-based subsea services provider FSDS Group for a bespoke air dive systems. In June, Unique Group’s Diving & Life Support division in Sharjah delivered such a system in eight weeks.
ABS classed and built to IMCA guidelines, the diving system comprises a dive control station, diver decompression chamber, diver monitoring and life support, air storage, high- and low-pressure compressors and main diver and standby diver hot water machines.
FSDS Group chief executive Matt Richards, said: “Our technical team worked rigorously with the engineering team at Unique Group to ensure that the system was designed to our specific requirements.”
UK-based JFD, part of James Fisher and Sons plc, was similarly challenged in September with an order to deliver saturation diving products rated to a depth of 500 m. JFD designed and delivered the new products as part of a saturation diving system for a leading offshore service provider.
For the contract JFD developed new environmental control systems, gas reclaim and life support products that provide saturation dive capability. To meet the requirement for 500 m-rated products, JFD updated its existing technology to provide greater performance capacity, as well as developing entirely new products, all of which had to be verified and proven at this lower operational depth. The new technology utilised by JFD has enabled products to be designed that are able to cope with increased pressure, increased ability to heat and which cool the divers’ living environment; they also offer increased transfer of gas and fluids at extreme operational depths.
JFD has previously modified its range of equipment to meet customer requirements. In 2014, as part of a saturation diving system built for the Russian Navy to support submarine rescue operations, JFD’s saturation diving products were enhanced for 450msw operation and incorporated within the diving vessel Igor Belousov.
