Trelleborg wins UK composite award
Published by Elizabeth Corner,
Senior Editor
World Pipelines,
Trelleborg’s advanced engineering materials (AEM) operation, has taken home the prestigious Innovation in Composite Manufacture Award at this year’s UK Composites Industry Awards Dinner in Birmingham, UK. The company was awarded the accolade after identifying an untapped opportunity for composites in buoyancy within the subsea sector.
The buoyancy solution needed to be strong, light and able to withstand high pressures at considerable depths of 11 500 m. As such, Trelleborg launched Project High Performance Low Density (HPLD), which involved the development, proving, manufacture and qualification of low density composites - or syntactic foam to be specific - capable of performing in high hydrostatic pressures and harsh subsea environments.
Brian Richardson, QHSE Manager within Trelleborg’s AEM operation, says: “Global demand for subsea equipment to operate in ever deeper seawater depths has dramatically increased in the past 50 years. Exploration depths have moved from 150 m in the North Sea, to the deepest known location on the planet; the Marianas Trench at 11 500 m. Consequently, the requirement for low density syntactic materials capable of withstanding the extreme hydrostatic pressures at these depths has become greater.
“By utilising appropriate material selection, innovative chemistry, formulation techniques and engineering ingenuity, our first product was approved in 2010 that was capable of operating in 2000 m of sea water. Further products soon followed, quickly making us a reputable supplier of low density, high performance, and high quality syntactic materials. And to be recognized for our innovation with a Composites UK award is a significant achievement.”
Within four years from project inception, a family of innovative subsea syntactic foam materials has been developed, qualified, manufactured and successfully marketed by Trelleborg. In addition, Project HPLD has generated 30 new jobs in the local Northwest area ranging from design engineering, sales, production, planning and materials. This allows the business to produce buoyancy from design to the final product all in-house.
Edited from source by Elizabeth Corner
Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/11112015/trelleborg-wins-uk-composite-award/
You might also like
World Pipelines Podcast: UK pipeline perspectives
In this episode, we look at the work of the Pipeline Industries Guild, in facilitating connections and learning for pipeliners of all kinds in the UK.
Apollo to partner with bp on TANAP gas pipeline
bp and Apollo have announced that they have reached agreements for Apollo-managed funds to purchase a 25% non-controlling stake in BP Pipelines (TANAP) Ltd – bp TANAP – the bp subsidiary that holds bp’s 12% interest in TANAP, owner and operator of the pipeline that carries natural gas from Azerbaijan across Türkiye.
