Engineering consultancy Xodus Group is investing over £600,000 launching a new service offering leading expertise in vibration measurement and analysis to help identify at-risk assets and piping onshore and offshore.
Aberdeen headquartered Xodus has initially recruited a team of seven specialists in the field of structural dynamics and plans to open a new office in Southampton’s Science Park by the end of April with plans to increase the team to 20 by the end of the year.
The pioneering capability will integrate fully with all six of the Group’s divisions, helping operators to identify at-risk subsea and topside equipment and systems to avoid costly shutdowns.
Steve Hamilton, Director of Integration Technology at Xodus Group said: “ Vibration issues can cause major problems and operators are increasingly realising that it should feed into their asset management strategies in order to avoid shutdowns Our expansion into this specialist field brings an important capability to our integrated service offering and will further strengthen the operations expertise offered by our flow assurance, materials and process dynamics engineers .”
Rob Swindell has been appointed to head up the service from Southampton and will be recruiting specialists in vibration monitoring and assessment as well as related fields. Prior to joining Xodus, Rob was Technical Director within the Acoustics and Vibration Group of Bureau Veritas UK Ltd.
Over the last 20 years he has been involved a variety of structural integrity projects in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Angola and North West Australia. He is co-author of the Energy Institute Guidelines for the avoidance of vibration induced fatigue in process piping systems.
He said: “ Vibration work is often carried out onsite using physical measurement tools, but there has been a change in thinking as operators see the major cost benefits of building vibration analysis into the design stage and we can offer the engineered solutions before expensive pipeline failures occur. ”
Rob graduated with a BSc in Naval Architecture from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1981, and also holds an MSc in Sound and Vibration from Southampton University. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Chartered Engineer.
Colin Manson , CEO of Xodus Group added: “ Our integrated offering can ultimately improve the safety of assets helping to reduce risks. We are recruiting the most talented people in this field with the intention of becoming the market leader in vibration dynamics .”
[mappress] Source: xodusgroup, April 19, 2011;