James Fisher Subsea Excavation, part of James Fisher and Sons, has launched what the company describes as the world’s most powerful mass flow excavation tool, the SP12000.
The hydraulically-driven SP12000 produces more than 6 tonnes of thrust at full power and a volume output of 12,000 litres of water per second,the company says, making it ideal for large seabed preparation projects, sandwave clearances, freespan rectifications and large diameter pipeline trenching.
The company has recently completed a re-engineering project on the SP12000.
”Advanced hydrodynamics and improved efficiency have been combined to give an excellent flow regime, which produces the cleanest cut trench possible by a mass or controlled flow excavator. Despite its size, the fully-controllable SP12000 is also capable of smaller-scale, precision excavation,” the company said in a statement.
This new technology is also being applied to the company’s existing fleet of mass flow excavators, also known as controlled flow excavators.
“The SP12000 is a massive step forward in mass, or controlled, flow excavation,” Graham Murdoch, technical director of James Fisher Subsea Excavation, said.
It has immense power with the capability to provide large-scale clearance and trenching, but it retains the precision and controllability to be as safe and exact as our other market-leading tools. This is a real game changer for our clients who have large-scale requirements. The technological advances we have developed during this engineering phase have already started to be transferred to our other excavators with the benefits being realised on recent projects for our clients.”
James Fisher Subsea Excavation’s fleet of tools provide a non-contact form of excavation that eliminates the risks associated with other excavation methods, especially around complex subsea assets, according to the company.