/2018 Archive


In Print – Maine International Trade Center GlobalView

In Print – Maine International Trade Center GlobalView

Oct 30, 2018

DeepWater Buoyancy was chosen as the lead story for this quarter’s edition of Maine International Trade Center’s GlobalView Newsletter.

The Maine International Trade Center visited the DeepWater Buoyancy facility and interviewed our Director of Business Development, David Capotosto

See the whole newsletter HERE.

 

MAINE IS INTERNATIONAL: Focus on Biddeford-Saco

As a statewide organization, Maine International Trade Center (MITC) has internationally engaged members located in all 16 counties that include manufacturers, service providers, and educational institutions. This article is the first in a series that will explore the diversity and dynamism of Maine’s international community through profiles of our members and economic development partners across the state.

The Biddeford-Saco region is experiencing significant economic growth. With over $200 million of investment in recent years, the once abandoned Mill District is the center of activity with over 150 businesses. Located in York County, these twin communities are the sixth (Biddeford) and eighth (Saco) largest cities in Maine. Here’s a look at what international means to three MITC members in the region.

DeepWater Buoyancy

When people ask David Capotosto what his Biddeford company does, his answer might sound confusing.

“I say we make stuff that floats underwater,” says Capotosto, Co-President and Director of Business Development at DeepWater Buoyancy. “Anyone that wants to put something heavy under the ocean and get it back someday probably needs us.”

“Let’s say you want to study ocean currents, or you want to look at the long-term effects of PH in deep sub-sea,” continues Capotosto.

For such research, monitoring equipment must be placed on the sea floor beneath thousands of meters of water to collect data for some period of time and then later brought back to the surface.

DeepWater Buoyancy designs, engineers, and manufactures buoys that are sent off a boat with the measuring instruments and a heavy weight that sinks everything to the bottom. When it’s time to recover the mooring, an acoustic signal is sent to the equipment telling it to detach from the weight, and the buoy floats to the surface bringing the instruments and data with it. The company is the worldwide leader in underwater buoyancy for the oceanographic community.

About 35% of what they produce leaves the country. The UK and China have been two strong markets, although Capotosto noted that the last round of China retaliatory trade tariffs will affect the landed cost of the buoys.

DeepWater Buoyancy was formed in 2013, but the product they make has been around for close to 40 years. Founded in 1979 as Flotation Technologies, the company was family run for many years then sold to larger companies out-of-state. Now, 4 former employees of Flotation Technologies own the new company, and many of the 22 employees have actually worked together for decades.

The company has been selling internationally for many years and seeks out Maine International Trade Center for guidance on workforce development, market research, export controls, and grant assistance.

“We’re buoyancy specialists, not grant specialists, so having access to people who know about the grant world and the other resources at MITC, instead of creating it all in-house, makes sense for us,” said Capotosto.

The company anticipates significant growth in the next 5 years which includes launching new products, expanding into new markets, making capital investments, and hiring more people. Growth that is exciting, yet also measured.

“Strategically, we take a conservative approach because we want sustainable success for everyone,” says Capotosto. “We want this to be around for the children of our employees should we be so blessed and fortunate to have our markets remain strong.”

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

About Maine International Trade Center

Maine International Trade Center (MITC) helps Maine businesses enter and expand global markets for their products and services. MITC offers one-on-one consulting and research, affordable group trade show participation, connections around the world, export reimbursement funds for small businesses, and more. Leveraging overseas synergy, MITC also works to increase international student attraction and foreign investment. A public-private partnership, MITC is funded through Maine Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), corporate contributions, and membership dues of nearly 300 businesses and organizations.

MITC members include manufacturers and service providers, economic development and government agencies, educational institutions, and trade assistance organizations.  We work with both exporters and importers.

Learn more at www.mitc.com/

Technical Paper: DoE Approach to Mooring Design

Technical Paper: DoE Approach to Mooring Design

Oct 25, 2018

DeepWater Buoyancy collaborated with Maine Marine Composites (MMC) on a paper for the Oceans18 Conference. 

The paper, entitled “A Design of Experiments based approach to engineering a robust mooring system for a submerged ADCP”, was presented by Tobias Dewhurst, PhD of MMC.

A copy of the paper can be downloaded HERE.

A copy of the PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded HERE

A Design of Experiments Based Approach to Engineering a Robust Mooring System for a Submerged ADCP

 

Authors

Michael T. MacNicoll, Tobias Dewhurst, PhD, Richard Akers, P.E. – Maine Marine Composites LLC, Portland, ME, USA

David A. Capotosto, DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc., Biddeford, ME, USA

Summary

A model-based engineering approach was used to design an optimal single-point mooring for a subsea Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). Numerous inputs and criteria were considered. Target deployment depth, environmental conditions, and seafloor characteristics were identified for the selected site in the Gulf of Maine. Design variables included buoy shape, buoy volume, gravity anchor mass, chain size, acoustic release buoyancy, and wire rope diameter. Design criteria included wire rope safety factor, chain load safety factor, ADCP pitch, ADCP knockover (set down), anchor sliding, and the recoverability of the Acoustic Release.  A design methodology based on Design of Experiments (DoE) theory was used to develop a mooring system that satisfied all the competing design objectives while minimizing cost. This methodology limited expensive simulation time while resulting in a satisfactory mooring design.

Keywords—Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler; ADCP; Mooring Design; Design of Experiments

I.    Introduction

A.   Motivation

Numerous competing criteria must be considered when designing mooring systems for oceanographic instruments. These criteria include the deployment depth range, acceptable pitch angles, and cost. Furthermore, environmental conditions and seafloor characteristics must be accounted for properly. An under-designed system could allow excessive instrument motion or movement of the anchor. An overdesigned system increases component costs and requirements for deployment assets. For example, oversizing the mooring line adds weight to the system, which in turn increases the buoyancy requirement. Increasing the buoyancy creates greater stress on the mooring line and increases the anchor weight requirement. These changes drive up the costs. A successful design approach must balance multiple competing criteria without requiring excessive simulation time, while resulting in a mooring system that meets the design criteria under all expected environmental conditions without overdesigning the system.

B.   Methodology

A simulation-based engineering approach was used to design an optimal single-point mooring for a subsea Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). This approach satisfied the objectives above by applying computer simulations in a Design of Experiments (DoE) framework. Using the DoE methodology, an experiment was designed to identify the factors that drive mooring system performance and cost. The results of the experiment were then used to optimize the system based on linear regression of the DoE results. This regression model accounted for both the first-order interactions between factors, and the competing design objectives discussed above.

Simple experiments often attempt to isolate variables and study their effects on a system one at a time. There are two limitations with this approach. First, the number of variables is artificially limited, to limit the time and effort to carry out an experiment. Second, this approach fails to study how design factors might interact with each other. The Design of Experiments (DoE) approach overcomes these shortcomings [1].

DoE is a systematic approach to quantify how sensitive a system is to factors that are believed to influence that system. A DoE setup will require first identifying the factors to be examined. Next, two levels are selected for each factor, and experiments are carried out on the system. This can be done using each possible combination of levels and factors, or a subset of each combination. When the number of factors is large, then the number of all possible combinations of levels and factors can become excessive, so a fractional factorial experiment may be designed that still ensures there is no aliasing between factors and first order interactions between factors.

In the present study, MMC applied a DoE approach to design a mooring system for a submerged ADCP. The DoE approach allowed for efficient examination of a very large design space, identification of the design factors that have the greatest impact on the design objectives, and development of an optimal design.

Fig. 1 lays out this design approach. An initial design is proposed, and design constraints are quantified. Design factors are identified. Upper and lower levels are determined for each factor. These levels represent the highest and lowest likely values for each design factor. Next, a DoE experiment is set up and computer simulations are run. The results of the DoE simulations are used to develop a regression model based on the design constraints. If the optimal design does not satisfy the design constraints, a revised DoE is developed. The revised DoE will require adjusting the levels of the factors, or adding new factors, to improve the results. The process is repeated until the optimal design converges on one which satisfies the constrained design objectives.

Figure 1. Flowchart of Design Approach

II.    Procedure

A.   Mooring System Initial Design

The ADCP mooring equipment was based on a typical mooring system design (see [2] for example) The arrangement consists of an anchor, connected with chain to an acoustic release (used to retrieve the ADCP) with some added buoyancy, and a wire rope from the acoustic release to a buoy that keeps the ADCP in position. The ADCP is attached to the top of the buoy and is positioned 100 meters below the surface to avoid the most extreme wave motions. The buoy has the dual objectives of (1) providing reserve buoyancy to keep the ADCP upright and in position to minimize pitching and knockover (set down) motions, and (2) to bring the mooring string to the surface when the release is activated. The arrangement is shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 2 Components of moored ADCP. Chain and wire rope lengths are not to scale.

B.   Environmental Conditions

The ADCP will be deployed near the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) Station 44098, Jeffrey’s Ledge in 300 meters of water [3]. A robust metocean study of the deployment location was performed by MMC using historical wave data from NDBC for the years 2008-2015. This study used Principle Component Analysis and the inverse first-order reliability method (I-FORM), as described in [4] and as implemented in the Wave-Energy-Converter Design Response Toolkit [5]. In this approach, linear algebraic methods are used to develop an orthogonal basis whose components are aligned so as to represent the largest degree of variance.  Once these principal components are identified, extreme contours are generated using the I-FORM approach [6]. The extreme contour was limited to the steepness at which waves generally break. The resulting 50-year return period contour is shown in Fig. 3. From this analysis, the largest 50-year return period significant wave height is 10.7 m, with a peak period of 13 s.

Figure 3  50-year sea state contour at Jeffrey’s Ledge, NH (solid blue line). Blue dots are historical observations. Contour lines show probabilities of occurrence.

 

C.   Design Constraints

As the goal of this study was to use a DoE-based approach to design a robust and cost-effective mooring system, the following seven design objectives were identified:

  • Prevent uplift and sliding of the anchor
  • Minimize knockover of the ADCP
  • Minimize pitch of the ADCP
  • Maintain minimum safety factor of the wire rope of at least 1.67 [7]
  • Maintain minimum safety factor of the anchor chain of at least 1.67 [7]
  • Acoustic release must have enough buoyancy to be recoverable if the wire rope fails and the acoustic release is disconnected from the upper buoy.
  • Minimize the cost of the system

D.   Design Factors

Six design factors were identified. These are the variables of the mooring arrangement that will be tuned by the DoE simulations. Two factors related to the ADCP buoy. Two buoy shapes, a spherical buoy and an elliptical buoy, were simulated. These are based on ADCP buoys made by DeepWater Buoyancy Inc., shown in Fig. 4. In addition, two buoy volumes (and corresponding buoyancy lift forces) were simulated for each shape. The buoy has the primary objectives of mitigating ADCP pitching and knockover. Larger buoys will increase the cost of the system and the loads on the mooring lines, while smaller buoys will be less effective in mitigating ADCP motions.

The third design factor is the mass of the anchor. The anchor must be heavy enough that it does not move, either vertically or laterally. However larger anchors will increase the cost of the system.

The diameter of the chain and wire rope components of the mooring line are the next two factors. The primary trade-off for these components is safety factor vs. cost. Smaller components will have lower safety factors, but larger components will drive up the cost of the system.

The final factor is the buoyancy of the acoustic release. This must provide enough uplift to ensure that the acoustic release can be recovered if the wire rope fails and the acoustic release is separated from the reserve buoyancy.

These design factors, and the corresponding higher and lower levels, are summarized in TABLE I. In a full factorial DoE, every combination of high and low levels for each factor would be simulated, resulting in 27=128 simulations. In this work a fractional factorial matrix was design with resolution four, which ensured that all primary factor and first order interaction effects could be isolated without aliasing, while reducing the number of required simulations [8].

Figure 4  ADCP buoyancy options. Top: spherical buoy; bottom: elliptical buoy (source: www.deepwaterbuoyancy.com).

 

Table 1  Summary of DoE Input Factors

 

E.   Computer Simulation

A computer simulation of the ADCP and its mooring system was developed using the commercial software OrcaFlex by Orcina [9]. Simulations were run for each row of the fractional factorial matrix during the 50-year return period storm with a steady current.

Three phases of ADCP deployment were investigated in the DoE simulations, including (1) deployment in calm water, (2) survival in 50-year return period storm event, and (3) retrieval using the acoustic release. Deployment involved releasing the ADCP from the surface and allowing the entire system to sink until the anchor reached the seabed. The retrieval was simulated by disconnecting the reserve buoyancy buoy from the wire rope, and the acoustic release from the chain. The acoustic release, provided it was buoyant enough, would rise to the surface with the wire rope.

The results of the DoE simulations are shown in Main Effects plots in Fig. 5. Each subplot shows the sensitivity of a single factor to the corresponding design objective. The steeper the line, the more sensitive the objective is to that factor. Some of the design trade-offs that must be considered are shown clearly in this figure. For example, increasing the buoy volume has the beneficial effects of decreasing the ADCP pitching and set down. However, there are also negative consequences to increasing the buoy volume, such as increasing the mooring loads, increasing the likelihood of anchor sliding, and increasing the cost of the system. To weight the pros and cons of conflicting design objectives, a global objective function was developed. This is discussed in the following section.

Figure 5  Summary of Design of Experiments simulation results. Each row shows the Main Effects plots for every factor and a single objective. Each column shows the Main Effects plots for every objective for a single factor.

 

F.   Optimization Results

The results of the DoE simulations were used to optimize the ADCP mooring system design. For each of the design objectives discussed above, a linear regression model was computed. For objective i, this takes the form:

(1)

Here bi are the regression coefficients and X are the levels for each factor, including first-order interactions and a constant intercept.

There are several limitations with using a strictly linear regression model to optimize the mooring design. First, there is no convenient way look at multiple design objectives at the same time. Second, many objectives are not linear. For example, the safety factor of the mooring rope must be at least 1.67, however, once it is over that threshold, it is less critical that it continue to be improved. To account for these limitations, each design objective was normalized with a logistic function,

(2)

Here fi(X) is the regression function for objective, i, and ki and x0,i are steepness and midpoint parameters which must be identified. The global objective function is then taken as the minimum of each objective:

 (3)

This is illustrated in Fig. 6. The wire rope safety factor experiences a steep drop-off when the safety factor approaches the design target. Above the target, the safety factor is not as sensitive to changes in the wire rope diameter. The cost objective function does not experience a steep drop-off, as there is no hard target. The optimal wire rope diameter is the peak of the Combined Objective function, which is located at the intersection of the two sub-objectives.

Figure 6  Illustration of wire rope safety factor and cost objectives as a function of wire rope level. The combined objective function is shown in red.

 

When all six design factors and all seven design objectives are considered, it is not possible to visualize the objective function in two dimensions. Fig. 7, Fig. 8, and Fig. 9 each show the objective function plotted as a surface plot for two factors.

Fig. 7 shows the objective function as a surface plot with respect to the chain diameter and the wire rope diameter. There is a trade-off between safety factor and cost that suggests that the optimal wire rope and chain diameters are roughly halfway between the upper and lower DoE levels.

Figure 7  Objective surface plot shown with respect to chain diameter (x-axis) and wire rope diameter (y-axis). Yellow regions show the peak objective values.

 

Fig. 8 shows the objective function with respect to the buoy shape and size. The buoyancy must optimized to balance a reduction in cost with an increase in wire rope safety. As the buoyancy decreases, however, the ADCP pitch increases. An elliptical buoy shape better mitigates ADCP pitch than a spherical buoy.

Figure 8  Objective surface plot shown with respect to reserve buoyancy (buoy) shape (x-axis) and buoy volume (y-axis). Yellow regions show the peak objective values.

 

Fig. 9 shows the objective function with respect to the anchor mass and acoustic release buoyancy. The optimal design occurs when the anchor mass and acoustic release buoyancy are large, but beyond a certain point the design is less optimal as the cost of the system becomes the limiting factor.

Figure 9  Objective surface plot shown with respect to anchor mass (x-axis) and acoustic release buoyancy (y-axis). Yellow regions show the peak objective values.

 

III.    Results

Once the objective function was defined, most standard optimization routines can be used to determine the optimal values. TABLE II. summarizes the optimal levels of each factor.

Table 2  Summary of Optimal Design

 

The optimal ADCP buoy is an elliptical buoy with a diameter of 50.5 inches. The optimal mooring lines are a 7.6 mm diameter wire rope and an 8.1 mm diameter studless chain. To ensure that sliding on the seabed is minimized, the anchor mass must be 1,694 kg, slightly larger than the highest level simulated. The acoustic release needs an additional 0.185 m^3 of buoyancy to ensure that it will be retrieved if it becomes separated from the buoy.

To validate that the DoE procedure successfully converged on a working arrangement, the design summarized in TABLE II. was simulated for a duration of three hours in the maximum 50-year return period sea state at the Jeffrey’s Ledge site. Extreme Value Analysis was used to find the peak expected value and confidence intervals for each objective. For objectives that are Gaussian, or nearly so, the three-hour extremes were computed according to:

Here x is an arbitrary data field, μx is the simulated mean, T is the dominant wave period, and σx is the simulated standard deviation.
For non-Gaussian distributed objectives, such as the mooring tension, the three-hour extremes were fit to a Generalized Pareto Distribution, using a Peaks-Over-Threshold (POT) approach [10], [11]. Then the upper 95th percentile of the expected values are used.
The results are summarized in TABLE III. The wire rope and chain safety factors are acceptable – both well above the target of 1.67 [7]. The pitch angle and knockover are manageable, the anchor stays in place, and the Acoustic Release is successfully recovered.

Table 3  Summary of Optimal Design Results

 

IV.    Discussion

Maine Marine Composites, in collaboration with DeepWater Buoyancy Inc, applied a Design of Experiments-based simulation approach to developing a robust, cost-effective mooring system for a hypothetical submerged ADCP in the Gulf of Maine. The DoE approach made it possible to quickly examine a broad range of design factors and levels, and the optimal design was shown to meet all the desired objectives.

The objective function used for optimization is based on linear regression of the DoE results. The objective function is constructed in such a way that all objectives are met without needlessly maximizing any objectives beyond their target levels. This approach supports both constraints and objectives, where constraints are a limit the design must achieve (“Ensure that the mooring safety factor is at least 2.2”) and objectives are more open-ended (“Minimize the cost of the mooring system”).

References

  1. Fisher, R., Design of Experiments, 8th, Oliver and Boyd LTD, Edinburgh, 1960.
  2. Ma, B.B., Lien, R-C., and D.S. Ko, “The variability of internal tides in the Northern South China Sea,” J. Oceanogr. 69, 2013, pp. 619-630.
  3. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Data Buoy Center. “Station 44098 – Jeffrey’s Ledge, NH (160).” S. Dept. of Commerce. https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44098.
  4. Eckert-Gallup, Sallaberry, Dallman, Neary. “Application of principle component anlysis (PCA) and improved joint probability distribution to the inverse first-order reliability method (I-FORM) for predicting extreme sea states,” Ocean Engineerign, 2016, pp. 307-319.
  5. Coe, R.G. Michelen, C., Eckert-Gallup, A., Yu, Y., and J.v. Rij, “WDRT: A toolbox for design-response analysis of wave energy converters,” Proceedings of the 4th Marine Energy Technology Symposium (METS), Washington D.C., 2016.
  6. Haver, S., and S. Winterstein, “Environmental contour lines: a method for estimating long term extremes by short term anslysis,” Trans. Soc. Nav. Archit. Mar. Eng. 116, 2009, pp. 116-127.
  7. American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Guide for Position Mooring Systems, Houston, TX, 2018.
  8. Krishnaiah, K., and P. Shahabudeen, Applied Design of Experiments and Taguchi Methods, PHI Learning Private Limited, New Dehli, 2012.
  9. Orcina LTC, OrcaFlex User Manual: OrcaFlex Version 10.2c, Daltongate Ulverston Cumbria, UK, 2018.
  10. Bommier, E., “Peaks-Over-Threshold Modelling of Environmental Data,” U.U.D.M. Project Report, 2014:33.
  11. do Nascimento, F.F., Gamerman, D., and H. Freitas Lopes, “A semiparametric Bayesian approach to extreme value estimation,” Stat. Comput. 22, 2012, pp. 661-675.

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

About Maine Marine Composites

MMC specializes in motion prediction for ships and platforms, analyses of fluid/structural dynamics, and mooring system design and simulation. Our engineering staff has decades of experience with design and analysis of ships and offshore energy systems, and has successfully completed diverse and challenging projects for many of the most highly regarded offshore and ocean energy companies.

For more information, please contact Richard Akers at dakers@mainemarinecomposites.com

Learn more at www.mainemarinecomposites.com

Mooring Matters: Sustained Measurements of Crucial Ocean Currents

Mooring Matters: Sustained Measurements of Crucial Ocean Currents

Sep 5, 2018

For the next installment in our series of technical articles, Dr. Peter Spain of Teledyne RD Instruments discusses the development of ADCP technology and the use of syntactic foam buoyancy in subsea moorings for sustained measurements of ocean currents.

Sustained Measurements of Crucial Ocean Currents

Teledyne RDI ADCPs and DeepWater Buoyancy Deliver a Go-To Combo

By Peter Spain Ph.D., Teledyne RD Instruments

Current Profiling

ADCPs are sonar systems that measure motion underwater. Using sound waves, they work like hand-held radars used by police to catch speeding motorists. To measure motion, ADCPs emit sound bursts along beams angled upward or downward.

Echoes are returned due to scattering off particles. Because zooplankton and suspended sediments are carried by the moving water, echoes scattered off them carry a change in pitch; this is the Doppler Effect. It tells how fast the current is moving and in what direction.

Sound waves propagate through the water column so echoes are returned and processed from many depths. The vertical range of this collection of measurements—called a profile of ocean current velocities—is greater for lower frequency sound waves.

Introduction

Next to the eastern seaboard of continents stream the largest currents on the planet. They have been well-known to seafarers for centuries. Found around the globe, these major ocean currents are energetic, narrow and deep. They exist in all ocean basins, north and south of the equator: Gulf Stream, Kuroshio, and Brazil, Agulhas, East Australian Currents respectively.

These strong currents move much warm water poleward from low latitudes; thus, they redistribute heat for the earth’s climate system. On shorter time scales, they affect regional and local weather. These flows transfer organisms, nutrients, chemicals, debris, and pollutants – all affect life in and out of the sea and along coastlines. And strong currents affect routes selected by shipping.

Crucial ocean currents have been studied to measure their structure, transport, and fluxes—and, in recent times, their changes on seasonal and longer times scales. In ball-park numbers, these flows span 100 km, move faster than 100 cm/s, and carry 100 times the outflow of the world’s largest river.

Measuring these currents has been challenging. To capture their extent, measurements need to reach deep. To resolve changes over time, measurements need to be sustained. And to survive, persistent measurement methods need to withstand the energy of these powerful currents. For example, surface drifters, floats, and gliders are quickly swept away in strong upper-ocean currents.

Figure 1. Large ADCP Buoys with Teledyne RDI ADCPs off South Africa. Credit: SAEON Egagasini Node. http://asca.dirisa.org/

Programs making long-term measurements of important currents rely on resilient moorings. And for measuring strong currents in the upper ocean, these moorings carry ADCPs.

In this two-part report, we first review some background to moorings carrying Teledyne RDI ADCPs mounted in DeepWater Buoyancy buoys. Then we look at sustained measurements of crucial ocean currents in some less-familiar places.

Figure 2. William Richardson, pioneer of Buoy Group at WHOI. Credit: Nova Southeastern University. LINK

Background

Almost 60 years ago at WHOI [1], William. S. Richardson launched the modern era of ocean-current metering. For studying deep-sea currents—notably, the Gulf Stream—he identified and invented two essential tools: a recording current meter and an unattended mooring. Richardson’s intent for the mooring was to suspend current meters at several depths. The meters would record long time-series of currents simultaneously. For studying currents across large areas, Richardson deployed several moorings.

Over the next two decades, the Buoy Group at WHOI engineered this reality. Their impressive results were hard won in the harsh and unforgiving environment of the deep sea. You can read more at this link: 50-years-of-the-whoi-buoy-group. For the UK story, see this PDF: UK_moorings.pdf.

Along the way, one key problem was mooring loss. A leading culprit was large drag force caused by strong currents. The adjacent graphic shows a section of the Gulf Stream in the upper 2000 m. Speeds are directed along-stream. Notice the extreme current speeds in the upper ocean and the large spatial gradients.

[1] Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. See Richardson et al. report (WHOI Ref: 63-1)

Figure 3. Gulf Stream currents and thermal structure. Distance: km, Current speeds: cm/s. Credit: Halkin + Rossby, 1985. LINK

For recording currents accurately, the meters need to hold position in three dimensions. The mooring must therefore be taut. To this end, sizable buoyancy is added to the mooring line. Yet, unavoidably, these elements increase drag forces exerted by strong currents.

Besides sweeping away moorings, strong drag forces caused mooring lines to pull apart (part way up) or to blow-over. The latter mooring motion carried instruments and mooring elements in large vertical excursions: 300-500 m in a tall mooring. See Fig. 4. These excursions confounded interpretation of measurements. Worse, the mooring could sink when in-line buoyancy was crushed by high pressure at unplanned depths.

Figure 4. Large vertical excursions of a mooring line in the Gulf Stream. Time series of two pressure sensors mounted in-line and separated by 200 m.  Credit: Hogg, 1986.  LINK

Mooring Changes

By the mid 1980’s, the design of both moorings and current meters had evolved substantially. Fig. 5 shows typical designs. Highlighted are important changes in mooring components. Notice the change in where buoyancy is added.

One strategy to decrease mooring losses was reducing drag. Major currents have strong near-surface speeds. To avoid these, moorings that terminated subsurface were developed. Many were topped with large spherical buoys. They provide the same buoyancy for less drag than smaller options. To solve the crushing problem during severe blow-over, these large spheres were made of syntactic foam.

Figure 5. Deep-sea moorings—pre ADCPs: Changes from early-1960’s to mid-1980’s. Credit: Richardson et al., 1963 WHOI Ref 63-1;  Molinari, 1986 LINK

Beginning with Hogg (1986), scientists introduced methods for correcting measurements confounded by blow-over of a mooring. As well, methods for evaluating the design and dynamics of moorings were more available. See Mooring Design and Dynamics

Figure 6. Spherical syntactic foam buoys housing Teledyne RDI ADCPs. Credit: NOAA. LINK

ADCPs

From the mid 1980’s, ADCPs provided a new solution for measuring strong surface currents. A mechanical current meter must be immersed in the flow it measures. In contrast, ADCPs are sonar systems; they can measure current velocity remotely. They emit an acoustic signal and then process the informational content of returning echoes.

Scientists realized that ADCPs looking upward could be used to measure strong surface currents while deployed in slower waters below. This helped reduce drag on the mooring. To this end, ADCPs were mounted in the flotation buoy atop subsurface moorings. Pioneering this approach was Friedrich A. Schott at University of Miami.

DeepWater Buoyancy’s antecedent, Flotation Technologies, developed these buoys as standard kit for ADCPs. Using syntactic foam for flotation elements permitted custom designs. Notably, a cylindrical instrument well was inserted along the vertical axis of the large spheres. Housing ADCPs in this sheltered location reduced current drag on the mooring. Since the late 1980’s, ADCPs have been commonly mounted atop a subsurface mooring within a collar of syntactic foam.

To further decrease drag on the mooring, new designs evolved for syntactic flotation buoys. An elliptical-shaped float that is more hydrodynamic became a common component on many deep sea moorings.

Figure 7. DeepWater Buoyancy Elliptical ADCP Buoy.  LINK

For measuring very strong currents, such as tidal streams, a torpedo-shaped buoy is now state-of-the-art. This approach reduces drag and increases stability in pursuit of moored nirvana—low tilt and minimal vertical excursions.

Figure 8. DeepWater Buoyancy StableMoor® Buoy holding Teledyne RDI ADCP. Credit: Bedford Institute of Oceanography. LINK

Moored ADCP Arrays

A mix of methods is needed to clarify the long-term effects of global warming. Moored arrays in major ocean currents provide an essential ingredient. Insights have come from researchers using computer models and satellite-based observations. And drifters, gliders, and floats can provide snapshots. Yet there is no substitute for hanging around in these deep and energetic flows.

For scientists to see long-term trends and large-scale connections, moored arrays must collect sustained time series. And for collecting this information Teledyne RDI ADCPs mounted in DeepWater Buoyancy flotation provide a go-to combination.

.   .   .   .   .   .   .  

 

In Part 2 of this report, we review some compelling examples of moored ADCP arrays measuring crucial ocean currents around the globe.

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

About Teledyne RD Instruments

With well over 30,000 Doppler products delivered worldwide, Teledyne RD Instruments is the industry’s leading manufacturer of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) for current profiling and wave measurement applications; and Doppler Velocity Logs (DVLs) for precision underwater navigation applications. Teledyne RDI also supplies Citadel CTD sensors for a variety of oceanographic applications.

Learn more at www.teledynemarine.com/rdi/

2018 European Teledyne Marine Users Conference

2018 European Teledyne Marine Users Conference

Sep 1, 2018

Sponsors and Exhibitors

DeepWater Buoyancy is co-sponsoring and exhibiting at the first European Teledyne Marine Users Conference .  The event is being held in Cannes France, October 9-11.

We will be represented at the event by Dan Cote, our Sales Manager.  If attending, please be sure to stop by our exhibit table and visit with him.

 

About the Event

TMTW offers a packed, non-stop schedule that truly offers something for every level of users, from novice to seasoned pro.​

Morning sessions will be comprised of three concurrent tracks dedicated to presentations given by Teledyne users from around the globe, who will share their experiences, challenges and solutions using Teledyne products in a wide array of application areas, including:

  • Oceanographic Research
  • Hydrography
  • Offshore Energy
  • Civil Engineering / Infrastructure
  • River/Stream Monitoring
  • Security / Defense
  • Aquaculture / Fisheries​

Attendees are sure to learn new and helpful information from these sessions, not only from the speakers, but from the questions and answer, and interaction with their industry peers in these sessions.

Afternoon sessions are comprised of Teledyne Marine product / software training, new product and application introductions, Q&As with Teledyne’s technical teams, dockside and on-water demonstrations, one-on-one meetings, and an opportunity to visit with our top-tier co-spons​​ors to discuss their third party solutions and services.

Questions?  Please contact Margo Newcombe at margo.newcombe@teledyne.com.​

For more details about the conference: ClickHere

To register: ClickHere

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

About Teledyne Marine

Beginning as a small collection of unique marine solution providers and expanding to a powerhouse of highly engineered, high performance solutions for a broad range of markets, Teledyne Marine now offers the largest breadth of marine technology in the industry.

With technologies divided into 5 core segments; Imaging, Instruments, Interconnect, Seismic and Vehicles, Teledyne Marine sales staff can address not only brand level solutions, but turn-key, customized systems that leverage our full range of technology. Our goal is to provide one-stop purchasing capability, world-wide customer support, and the technical expertise to solve your toughest challenges.

A Sea of Solutions…..One Supplier.

Learn more at teledynemarine.com

NEW Pop-Up Buoy for EdgeTech PORT LF-SD.

NEW Pop-Up Buoy for EdgeTech PORT LF-SD.

Aug 22, 2018

Announcement

DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc. announces that it has developed a new Pop-Up Buoy Recovery System (PUB) for the EdgeTech PORT LF SD Acoustic Release.  Like the original product, the new PUB allows for direct retrieval of seabed packages, such as anchors, anchor lines, and bottom-mounted frames and instruments.

The new product was developed with EdgeTech’s product development team at the request of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Pop-Up Buoy Product Details

Easily mounted to any framework, the assembly sits on the seafloor until the acoustic release is activated. Once the release completes its disconnection, the buoy lifts free from the canister and rises to the surface. A synthetic line connects the buoy directly to the framework of the seabed item and allows for retrieval.

The buoy is outfitted with an electropolished 316 stainless steel frame.  The canister holds 75 meters of 1/4″ synthetic line. (Other line lengths are available upon request.) The recovery buoy is made from high-strength DeepTec® solid syntactic foam. The foam is finished with an abrasion-resistant, polyurethane elastomer coating.

The canister is made from PVC and 316SS plate. It has a rugged design and has attachment features to permit various mounting configurations, including easy mounting to our BTM-AL50 tripod bottom mounts.

To learn more about the PUB – CLICK HERE

Acoustic Release Product Details

The PORT Push Off Release Transponder is ideal for deployments in coastal environments. The mechanical drive off system is the best choice for deployments where acoustic release mechanisms can experience growth or sediment build up. Its unique push-off mechanism provides reliable release every time.

The low frequency acoustic command structure is proven to be very reliable and is unsurpassed in multi-path environments.

Features:

  • All Aluminum components
  • Simple and easy maintenance
  • Small lightweight package
  • Medium load acoustic release
  • Full transponder capability
  • 1.25 years on alkaline batteries
  • Reliable and secure command coding
  • including Enable, Disable and Release commands
  • Purge Port
  • Auto Disable
  • Tilt & Release indication

To learn more about the PORT LF SD – CLICK HERE

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

About EdgeTech

EdgeTech is a leading manufacturer of underwater technology solutions. The company is known worldwide for its high quality products which include: side scan sonars, sub-bottom profilers, bathymetry systems, AUV and ROV-based sonar systems, combined and customized solutions. In addition to the full line of underwater survey products, EdgeTech provides reliable USBL systems, transponder beacons, deep sea acoustic releases, shallow water and long life acoustic releases, MRUs and customized underwater acoustic command and control systems.

Learn more at www.edgetech.com

DeepWater Buoyancy in 2018 MTR100

DeepWater Buoyancy in 2018 MTR100

Aug 15, 2018

Announcement

DeepWater Buoyancy has again been selected for the prestigious Marine Technology Reporter “MTR100”.

Marine Technology Reporter (MTR) magazine is the world’s largest audited circulation publication serving the global Marine Technology Market. This month, MTR released its 13th Annual Listing of 100 Leading Subsea Companies.

DeepWater Buoyancy is proud to be amongst a distinguished collection of companies that include: Teledyne Marine, Kongsberg, Hydroid, and Sonardyne International, to name just a few.  In addition to being selected, a short article about DeepWater Buoyancy was included in the publication.

MTR100 Article

DeepWater Buoyancy is the world’s largest supplier of subsea buoyancy to the ocean science community. The product line is more than 35 years old and is known throughout the world and in all offshore marine markets. DeepWater Buoyancy also has a vast and growing product line of buoyancy solutions for offshore oil and gas and technology companies. Though it offers products for shallow water applications, it specializes in deepwater, providing solutions to depths of 6,000 meters and beyond.

In 2013, DeepWater Buoyancy acquired the rights and designs for the legacy Flotec material technology and products, and has been producing, improving and growing the Flotec product line. Each year the product line improves and new items are added in response to market conditions, changing technology, and customer requirements. In addition to product innovation, new processes and equipment are added to the companies already wide capabilities.

At the heart of the DeepWater Buoyancy product line are the subsurface ADCP buoys, originally developed for Teledyne RD Instruments’ ADCPs. Consisting primarily of both spherical and elliptical buoys, the product line also includes the unique StableMoor® Mooring Buoys. These torpedo-shaped buoys are engineered to house ADCPs and other sensors for high current data collection applications. By design, the StableMoor® reduces drag and increases mooring stability in extreme fl ow regimes, thereby producing superior data sets.

However, DeepWater Buoyancy’s product line goes well beyond ADCP buoys. In the oceanographic market there are bottom mounts, instrument collars, and cable floats. For offshore oil and gas, there are installation blocks, modular buoys, deepwater marker floats and ROV buoyancy. In addition to DeepTec® syntactic foam products and custom-engineered components, there are also plastic, composite, polyurethane and fabricated metal products.

DeepWater Buoyancy StableMoor® Mooring Buoy outfitted with a trim bar and carbon fiber instrument wings.

 

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

About Marine Technology Reporter

Marine Technology Reporter magazine is the world’s largest audited circulation publication serving the global Marine Technology Market. From offshore energy to subsea defense to science and technology, MTR covers it all.

Each issue is packed with the latest cutting edge technology from the industry’s leading companies, as well as exclusive insights and market analysis that are critical in today’s subsea industry.

If it is subsea industry related technology you seek, you will find it in Marine Technology Reporter Magazine.

Learn more at www.marinetechnologynews.com

Exhibiting at Oceans in Action

Exhibiting at Oceans in Action

Jul 27, 2018

Sponsors and Exhibitors

DeepWater Buoyancy is co-sponsoring and exhibiting at the Marine Technology Society’s 8th annual Oceans in Action workshop.  The event is being held in Gulfport Mississippi on August 21st and 22nd.

We will be represented at the event by Chris Kelly and Kurt Fromhertz, our sales representatives in the gulf coast.  If attending, please be sure to stop by our exhibit table and visit with them.

 

About the Event

The Oceans In Action Workshop is an annual event featuring new technologies in the maritime industry.  Day one consists of updates from federal, state, and regional organizations and new technologies that have helped their missions over the past year.  New technologies of interest to local agencies are also presented. Day two is our industry-focused day and has historically consisted of panels on current and emerging topics.  This year, resulting from a closer collaboration with the Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, our event is even more exciting!

Day two will begin with pier-side demonstrations of select technologies associated with the Advanced Navy Technology Exercise (ANTX). Workshop participants will be shuttled to the Port of Gulfport to watch staged demonstrations of new technologies, review results of exercises recently held in the Gulf of Mexico, and to tour recently-completed facilities, including the new University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Marine Research Center.  Participants will be shuttled back for luncheon presentations, a panel on the Blue Economy, and Business-to-Business/Business-to-Government meetings.

Highlights

  • Keynote Addresses by leading State and Navy Officials
  • Tours of the new USM Marine Research Center
  • Pierside demonstrations associated with the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX): Gulf Coast
  • Blue Economy Panels: BlueTech Clusters and Finding Seed/Venture Capital
  • B2B/B2G meetings with federal agency representatives and large prime contractors

Speakers from the following agencies:

  • Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (CNMOC)
  • Naval Research Laboratory – Stennis Detachment (NRL)
  • NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center (NDBC)
  • NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
  • USGS Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility (HIF)
  • USM’s School of Ocean Science & Technology/USM’s Marine
    Research Center
  • The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS)

For additional information contact Laurie Jugan at laurie.jugan@usm.edu

To register: ClickHere

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

DeepWater Buoyancy Grows Sales Team

DeepWater Buoyancy Grows Sales Team

May 9, 2018

Announcement

DeepWater Buoyancy is pleased to announce and welcome Wes Bilodeau to the sales team. Wes comes with a degree in environmental design, and experience in manufacturing and technical sales.

As a Sales Engineer, Wes will provide support to the growing international and Gulf Coast clientele and representative networks. Additionally, he will work with the engineering team on new product development and commercialization.

Wes will be part of the US-based sales team led by Dan Cote, Sales Manager.  Dan has almost 30 years of experience in subsea buoyancy for oceanography and oil & gas.

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

DeepWater Buoyancy Selected for Maine Technology Asset Fund Grant

DeepWater Buoyancy Selected for Maine Technology Asset Fund Grant

Apr 16, 2018

Announcement

The Maine Technology Institute announced today that DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc. was selected to receive a grant as a part of the Maine Technology Asset Fund 2.0 program.

The company’s proposal was one of 18 chosen from a pool of 183 in a highly competitive selection process.

About the Grant

Brian Whitney, President of MTI stated, “The Maine Technology Institute (MTI) recently closed its Maine Technology Asset Fund 2.0 (MTAF2.0) application portal and announced that it received 183 proposals from Maine companies and organizations seeking, in aggregate, $381 million in funding.”  The MTAF2.0 program was established to enable organizations to gain and hold market share, to increase revenues, and to expand employment or preserve jobs.

In total, forty-five million dollars ($45,000,000) is being distributed in the form of matching grants to support infrastructure, equipment and technology upgrades.  These MTAF2.0 investments are expected to have a monumental impact on the State of Maine over the next five years, creating over 5,300 new jobs and resulting over $1.3 billion in economic impact.

Expanding Products and Markets

David Capotosto, Director of Business Development, commented, “DeepWater Buoyancy is seeing opportunities for new products in existing markets and demand for our products in new markets.  As such, a substantial capital investment program has begun to upgrade facilities, add equipment, and introduce new processes.  These improvements will also ensure the ongoing support of our existing customers and markets, and allow us to service customers in new applications and markets.” In the proposal for the grant DeepWater Buoyancy noted that they are involved in three of the seven key technology sectors targeted by the Maine Technology Institute (MTI); Aquaculture & Marine, Advanced Composites, and Precision Manufacturing.

Product Opportunities

DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc. has been the world’s largest producer of subsea buoyancy products for the oceanographic industry since its inception in 2013.  Additionally, the company has a vast line of buoyancy solutions for offshore oil & gas, government research, defense, aquaculture and marine markets.  The capital investment program is aimed at facilitating the growth of this line.

The growing line of products is the result of close collaboration with customers and a dedication to application-specific product design and development.  The company’s design philosophy is, “A customer should have a product that meets the application, and not be forced to adjust their application to an off-the-shelf product.”  Whether an iteration of an existing design or a completely new design, the goal is to produce the finest, most appropriate, and cost-effective solution for any given application.

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

StableMoor® Buoys Support Ice Studies

StableMoor® Buoys Support Ice Studies

Mar 7, 2018

The Right Design

DeepWater Buoyancy’s StableMoor® Mooring Buoys have been chosen to support the “Stratified Ocean Dynamics in the Artic” (SODA) initiative headed by the Office of Naval Research.

The buoys were custom-designed and built to specifications provided by the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab and the University of New Hampshire.  These buoys will support instrumentation that will map the underside of sea ice in support of the research project.

 

About the StableMoor® Buoys

The pair of StableMoor® buoys were over 12 feet (3.5 meters) long in order to house the instruments required for the deployment.  Each unit was equipped with features to allow for an upward-facing ADCP, upward facing sonar, a velocimeter, and three battery housings.  Each unit provides 475 lbs (215 kgs) of buoyancy and is rated for 750 msw.

This product was chosen by the research team because of its unique performance characteristics. Specifically engineered for high current applications, the StableMoor® is designed to reduce drag and increase mooring stability in extreme flow regimes. By decreasing frontal area (compared to a standard spherical buoy) and increasing dynamic stability in high current areas, the StableMoor® minimizes mooring inclination and excursions.

Learn more about the comparison of buoy shapes in differing flow regimes HERE

Learn more about our StableMoor® buoys HERE

The University of Washington team is well acquainted with the value of the StableMoor® design.  These two buoys add to their existing units that they have been working with for the past three years.  Some of these buoys previously supported a challenging NREL project studying high flow/turbulence sites for subsea turbines.

Learn about the NREL application HERE

About the Research Project

From the research paper “Stratified Ocean Dynamics of the Arctic: Science and Experiment Plan – Technical Report APL-UW 1601”, September 2016, by Craig M. Lee et al.

Vertical and lateral water properties and density structure within the Arctic Ocean are intimately related to the ocean circulation, and have profound consequences for sea ice growth and retreat as well as for propagation of acoustic energy at all scales. Our current understanding of the dynamics governing arctic upper ocean stratification and circulation derives largely from a period when extensive ice cover modulated the oceanic response to atmospheric forcing, resulting in weak seasonality, at least within the deep basins.

Recently, however, there has been significant arctic warming (Overland et al., 2016), accompanied by changes in the extent, thickness distribution, and properties of the arctic sea ice cover. Summertime sea ice extent has been declining since at least 1979 (when satellite-borne passive microwave sensors began providing comprehensive ice maps; Perovich et al., 2012), with a trend of –13.4% per decade relative to the 1981–2010 average (Figure 1; Perovich et al., 2015; Thomson et al., 2016). September sea ice minimum extents from 2007–2015 are the lowest in the 1979–2015 period, with a record minimum of 3.39 million sq km in 2012.

Figure 1. Time series of Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent anomalies in March (the month of maximum ice extent) and September (the month of minimum ice extent). The anomaly value for each year is the difference (in %) in ice extent relative to the mean values for the period 1981–2010. The black and red dashed lines are least squares linear regression lines. The slopes of these lines indicate ice losses of –2.6% and –13.4% per decade in March and September, respectively. Both trends are significant at the 99% confidence level. From Perovich et al. (2015).

Sea ice has become younger alongside the decreases in extent (Figure 2). Sea ice thickness typically increases with age, such that the combined trends toward decreasing extent and younger mean age point to a persistent loss of sea ice volume (Kwok et al., 2009; Schweiger et al., 2011). Thinner, younger ice tends to be weaker, more subject to deformation and fracturing, and thus more mobile and more likely to provide efficient coupling between the atmosphere and upper ocean. Furthermore, the growing summertime expanses of open water provide periods when the dynamics might more closely resemble those that govern the upper ocean at lower latitudes.

The need to understand these changes and their impact on arctic stratification and circulation, sea ice evolution, and the acoustic environment motivate the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Stratified Ocean Dynamics of the Arctic Departmental Research Initiative (SODA DRI).

Figure 2. A time series of sea ice age in March from 1985 to the present (top) and maps of sea ice age in March 1985 (lower left) and March 2015 (lower right). From Perovich et al. (2015).

Download the full technical report HERE

Learn more at the research project website HERE

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

Sponsoring the MTS Buoy Workshop 2018

Sponsoring the MTS Buoy Workshop 2018

Mar 1, 2018

Sponsors and Exhibitors

DeepWater Buoyancy is co-sponsoring and exhibiting at the 12th Annual MTS Buoy Workshop.  The event is from April 9-12 in the University of Michigan Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hosts this year are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), and the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS).

If attending, please be sure to come and meet Dan Cote, Sales Manager.

 

Event Details from MTS

“It’s all about making critical measurements offshore, and getting data from the oceans and lakes back to shore“.

We are inviting all to join us for the 12th MTS Buoy Workshop at the Michigan League, located on the University of Michigan Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during 9-12 April.  We welcome presenters and exhibitors.

As always, we welcome manufacturers and distributors of components and instrumentation for oceanographic buoy systems to exhibit at the workshop, inviting them to display and discuss their products. Interaction between the workshop attendees and these organizations prove to be beneficial to both.

Our hosts this year are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL), the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), and the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS).

We will open with an Ice-Breaker on Monday night, April 9th at the Graduate Ann Arbor Inn, one of our host hotels in Ann Arbor. The Speaker Program begins at 8 am on Tuesday, April 10th.”

  • Abstract Deadline – Friday, March 9, 2018
  • Early Workshop Registration – Friday, March 2, 2018
  • Exhibitor Application Deadline – Friday, March 2, 2018
  • Early Hotel Discounted Rate at the Graduate Ann Arbor and The Inn at the Michigan League – Friday, March 16, 2018
  • Power-Point Presentations Due – Friday, April 2, 2018

For more information contact Judy… jrizoli@whoi.edu

Or learn more about the event HERE

Send us an email to schedule a visit at the show with DeepWater Buoyancy’s Sales Manager … sales@deepwb.com

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

IN PRINT – Apprenticeship Program

IN PRINT – Apprenticeship Program

Feb 28, 2018

Local News

DeepWater Buoyancy was found In Print in Monday’s edition of the Portland Press Herald.  The regional paper highlighted the company’s participation in an apprenticeship program with the local technical school.  As a company staging for future growth, locating and developing skilled personnel is essential.  As such, the company is investing in local students as they begin their journey into the workforce.

Download a PDF of the article HERE    …or read the full text of the article below.  We were also featured on television news.  The video can be seen below the article.

Article

BIDDEFORD — Each weekday morning, Sam Roy heads to work. Alongside experienced welders at DeepWater Buoyancy, he spends five hours polishing, bending and cutting metal. Then he clocks out and heads to class at Biddeford High School.

Sam Roy, left, and Joe Woods prepare parts to be welded at DeepWater Buoyancy. Co-owner Matthew Henry said welders are in short supply. “The best thing we can do for him is show him all the skills he’ll need beyond welding,” Henry said.

Roy’s paid internship at the Biddeford manufacturer of sub-sea buoyancy products is a first for the company and the Biddeford Regional Center of Technology, and is an example of how Maine schools can prepare students to take advantage of a large, unmet demand for workers in the trades.

However, the arrangement wasn’t possible when Roy, 17, first discovered his love for welding because of state labor laws that prohibited teens from working with hazardous machinery. Roy and a bipartisan group of lawmakers first had to change those labor laws.

The revisions to the Hazardous Occupations Law for Minors allow students to work and earn money while enrolled in a cooperative or vocational training program. The changes added an exemption for students under 18 enrolled in a career and technical education – or CTE – program to work for short periods of time under the direct supervision of a fully qualified and experienced adult. The rules require the CTE program to provide basic safety training to students and to continue to oversee students’ education.

Sen. Amy Volk of Scarborough, who proposed the amendment with Reps. Martin Grohman and Ryan Fecteau of Biddeford, said the changes benefit both students and local businesses like DeepWater Buoyancy that are trying to attract skilled workers.

“Welding is a talent that is incredibly important to industry in Maine. That’s why, as a committee, we felt it was important to do everything we could to enable the next generation of students interested in a technical career path such as engineering, plumbing, automotive or nursing, to name a few, to succeed,” said Volk, Senate chairwoman of the Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee.

The concept of matching students with local companies isn’t new at the Center of Technology or at the 26 other career and technical education schools around the state, but educators and tradesmen say changes were necessary to give students the experience they need to enter the workforce and fill gaps in trades that have a hard time attracting new workers.

“In the past 20 years, I’ve seen such a great need for skilled labor,” said Jim Godbout, owner of Jim Godbout Plumbing and Heating. “There used to be a lot of families going into the same trade for generations, but you don’t see much of that anymore.”

Building Industry Labor Shortage

There are now more people in Maine aging out of the workforce than entering it because of a large drop in the number of births after the 1980s, according to the Maine Department of Labor. That has left gaps in some industries that are not attracting as many skilled workers as needed.

Those gaps are felt especially hard in the building industry, where the average age of plumbing and heating contractors is now over 55.

“They’re retiring and no one is coming into the trades,” said Alice Ames, executive director of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association of Maine.

Paulette Bonneau, director of the Center of Technology, said internships allow students to gain real-world experience while also exposing them to career opportunities they can pursue without leaving the state.

“They see there are a lot of cool things happening in Maine they can be a part of. This is key for us in the state,” she said. “There are so many neat things going on in the industry here in Maine.”

Skills Not Learned in School

 Last year, over 90 percent of Maine CTE high school students graduated, compared with 60 percent of their peers, according to a study by Educate Maine and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. Many students leave CTE centers with industry-recognized certifications and technical certificates that allow them to go right to work out of high school. Some of those certifications can be carried over as credits in college.

The Biddeford Regional Center of Technology is open to students from Biddeford High School, Thornton Academy and Old Orchard Beach High School. It offers 16 courses of study ranging from welding-metal fabrication to early childhood education to business and financial management.

The center last year added a plumbing program that now includes more than a dozen students.

“This is not your grandfather’s vocational school,” Bonneau said. “The technology high school setting of today is focused on academic rigor, work ethic and people skills that traditional high school students often are not exposed to.”

Roy was introduced to the Center of Technology during a technology course he took as a sophomore. The teacher taught Roy and his classmates about multiple options at the center, but it wasn’t until a trip to the welding class that Roy’s interest was truly sparked.

“Something just clicked,” said Roy, who comes from a family of toolmakers and machinists. “I found it more interesting and unique than anything I’d done before.”

Roy said he felt energized to study welding and threw himself into the course during his junior year. Last year, he became the first junior at the tech center to obtain an American Welding Society certification.

Matthew Henry, co-owner and plant manager of DeepWater Buoyancy, said good welders in Maine are in short supply and the company was happy to partner with the Center of Technology so it could bring Roy to work.

“He’s essentially just another employee,” Henry said. “The best thing we can do for him is show him all the skills he’ll need beyond welding.”

Roy doesn’t have the welding skills necessary to do the same work as experienced DeepWater Buoyancy employees, but he said he is constantly learning from his mentor and other workers when he’s on the job. He undergoes the same extensive safety training and also is learning about things like blueprints.

Roy, who will attend Eastern Maine Community College after graduation, said he believes his future career in welding will allow him to stay in Maine or bring him to places like Canada and Alaska to work as a pipefitter.

“With other jobs I’ve had, it doesn’t have the same level of satisfaction of getting something done that benefits other people,” he said.

A Plumbing Career Blooms

The labor law change also allowed Jackson Oloya, a 17-year-old second-year plumbing student, to start a paid internship at Jim Godbout Plumbing and Heating in Biddeford.

Since January, Oloya, a senior from Biddeford High, has spent up to 24 hours a week working with Godbout’s more experienced employees. He earns $12 an hour, but that could go up by $1 or $2 an hour by the end of the summer as he learns new skills.

So far, Oloya’s work has included fixing toilets, repairing a commercial shower at the YMCA and helping a service technician identify and address home heating problems.

After working from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., he returns to school for classes and to play basketball.

“He’s not just working, he’s doing,” Godbout said. “He’d love to work a lot more and we’d love to have him. He’s super eager to learn.”

Oloya started in the plumbing program at the center during its first year. It was interesting, he said, but it wasn’t until the hands-on part of the course began that he really got excited about his future career.

“I’m not a person who stays in an office all day. I like to put things together,” he said. “I thought of myself 10 years from now and said, ‘I can do this.’ ”

Investing in Young People

Oloya, who was born in Uganda and moved to the United States 15 years ago, said he has found he most enjoys doing repair work because it allows him to help customers directly. He also likes the idea that he can pursue a career in the community where he already lives with his mother and 10 siblings.

In the fall, Godbout will pay for Oloya to attend a 12-week advanced training program with the Maine Energy Marketers Association. Godbout said he is willing to invest in young people like Oloya who have a strong work ethic and are serious about building a career with his company.

Oloya and Godbout will sign a contract saying Oloya will continue working for the company after his training.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Oloya said. “I’m getting my brain working a lot. I’ll learn lots of new skills and I like that a lot.”

Godbout said he is encouraged to see more students becoming interested in the industry, and he thinks the opportunities for paid internships will grow “by leaps and bounds” because so many plumbers and electricians are eager to work with young people getting into the industry.

“It’s a great opportunity for these students,” he said. “You can’t buy an education like that.”

And on TV

The story was also run in video as well.

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com

Representative Spotlight – ASB Systems in India

Representative Spotlight – ASB Systems in India

Feb 4, 2018

DeepWater Buoyancy has the finest international representative network for oceanographic subsea buoyancy.  What follows is the next in a series of articles on our representative groups.  This time we are highlighting our representative in India – ASB Systems Pvt Ltd.  Founded in 1995, ASB is another of our representatives who have many years of experience integrating our buoyancy solutions into subsea moorings and structures. ASB services our customers in this region such as the National Institute of Oceanography and the National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research.

 

Introduction

ASB Systems was formed in 1995, with a vision to become a multifaceted company in promoting and setting up a strong foundation for a variety of marine related products. The mission is to build and strengthen the foundation of our principals in the Indian market by creating a perfect passage between principal and the end-user. Since inception, the Company has focused on two key issues: the sale of quality products followed by equally good quality post sale support to ensure maximum uptime and utilization of systems. This, in turn, has attracted high levels of customer appreciation for our timely and efficient service.

Representation

We are the authorized sales and service representative of some of the leading manufacturers of Hydrographic and Oceanographic equipment. Our principals are:

  • Teledyne RD Instruments, USA – Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler
  • Hemisphere GNSS,USA – DGPS
  • Hypack, USA – Hydrographic Survey Software
  • Teledyne Odom Hydrographic, USA – Multi-beam & Single Beam Echo Sounders
  • Wartsila ELAC Nautik GmbH, Germany – Multi-beam Echosounders
  • Teledyne Benthos, USA – Acoustic Modems & Releases, Glass Floats
  • SMC Ship Motion Control, Malta – Motion Sensors
  • SBG Systems, France – MEMS IMU
  • SevenCs, Germany – Electronic Charts
  • CODAR Ocean Sensors, USA – Ocean Surface Current & Wave Monitoring
  • Coda Octopus Products Ltd, UK – Echoscope & IMU
  • Deepwater Buoyancy, USA – Subsea Buoyancy Products
  • Innomar Technologies GmbH, Germany – Sub Bottom Profiler
  • Nke Instrumentation, France – Multi-parameter Probes
  • dotOcean NV, Belgium – Instruments for Sediment and Density Measurement

Location and Staff

The Company owns its only premises in Mumbai, in order to maintain strict quality control on our service and have expertise at one point.  ASB Systems is known among Indian clients as a company which delivers quality product and support.  The Service Centre has test equipment (both specialized and normal), documentation, and necessary tool and test equipment to diagnose & repair equipment that ASB sells. The service engineers are periodically trained at our principals’ plants to update their technical skills in order to support contracts, improve troubleshooting, and help in our sales effort.   ASB engineers are responsible for setting high standards of customer support. As a result, the group has always added to the client list and has rarely lost a client.

Services Offered

Sales – Representing OEMs in India for marine research instruments

Warranty Support – To provide service support during warranty period on behalf of OEM

Installation – Installation, Commissioning and Training

Maintenance – Service, Support, Troubleshooting, and Repairs

Our Engineers have the expertise to diagnose defects and provide solutions. Warranty support is provided with clear guidance and support from our principals. Spares as and when required can be arranged ensuring that the lead-time is minimized. ASB Systems also provide Annual Maintenance Contracts for the systems we sell.  ASB engineers keep themselves updated through self-learning programs as well as training organized at the OEM factories.

Over the years, we have provided services to government and private organizations in our field of operation. Effective and efficient support is our prime objective and we make conscious effort to satisfy our customers. We have a long experience in supplying oceanographic products including deep water buoys, ADCPs, acoustic modems, and acoustic releases. Our engineers possess the expertise to integrate these subsea devices and have been ably supporting our esteemed customers for such applications. Whether it is calculating the deployment duration of an ADCP and modem to ensure that the batteries last through the deployment, or addressing a requirement to acquire real-time data from subsea instrumentation, ASB Systems has been proactively providing support for every type of application.

Markets

Principle markets for the company include land and marine survey companies, harbours, container ports, universities, government marine institutes, fish farms, OEM system integrators, dredging contractors, super yachts, racing yachts, marine archaeology, ROV and autonomous underwater/surface vehicles, pilotage, TV outside broadcast, precision agriculture, and fellow marine equipment suppliers and rental organisations.

Our Team Our Strength

Pop-Up Buoy Product Image

Contact ASB Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Gopa Williams   |   gopa@asbsystems.net  |   +91 22 4230 1919 / 1927
www.asbsystems.co.in

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty-five years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

For further sales information:  Dan Cote, Sales Manager  |  sales@deepwb.com  |  +1 207 502 1400

For further company information:  David A. Capotosto |  davidcap@deepwb.com  |  +1 207 468 8545

Exhibiting at Oceanology International 2018

Exhibiting at Oceanology International 2018

Jan 2, 2018

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DeepWater Buoyancy is exhibiting at Oceanology International 2018 in London, UK.  The conference is from March 13-15 at the ExCel London conference center.  Please come visit us at Stand C353 and meet Dan Cote, Sales Manager, and David Capotosto, Director of Business Development.

Oceanology International is an exhibition and conference designed to bring together marine professionals, businesses and organizations to improve their strategies for measuring, developing, protecting and operating in the world’s oceans.

 

 

Learn more HERE

Send us an email to schedule a visit with us at the show… sales@deepwb.com

DeepWater Buoyancy Exhibitor Information HERE

About DeepWater Buoyancy, Inc.

DeepWater Buoyancy creates subsea buoyancy products for leading companies in the oceanographic, seismic, survey, military and offshore oil & gas markets.   Customers have relied on our products for over thirty years, from the ocean surface to depths exceeding six thousand meters.

Learn more at www.DeepWaterBuoyancy.com