marine - Rotec Hydraulics Ltd

Rotec part of a groundbreaking vessel development: WaveAccess

In 2014, Rotec were invited to join Coastal Charters, a commercial maritime business based in West Cumbria, on the development of WaveAccess.

The project originally came as a response to an emerging trend within the offshore wind industry to move the construction further out into the sea. The company anticipated the industry’s need for a reliable vessel that would be faster and able to cope with the challenging conditions further offshore.

The goal of the project was to design and build a rapid crew transfer vessel that would be faster, safer and cheaper to run than the vessels in use, resulting in the pilot vessel: Tenacity

The radical new design allows for transport of passengers and crew with dramatically reduced fuel consumption at twice the speed, while maintaining safety, minimising motion sickness and improving comfort at up to 40 kts in seas in excess of 2m. The vessel can be used for crew transfers in industries such as oil & gas, offshore wind and construction, search and rescue, patrol, medivac, safety boat, to name a few.

See video of the vessel in action on WaveAccess website or YouTube channel

Thanks to Rotec’s extensive marine experience and previous control systems the company had developed for use on multi-hull jet vessels in the wind-farm support vessel industry we were invited to participate in this innovative project.

Andy Rimes, Rotec’s Technical Director outlines the project “Together with the team at WaveAccess and other specialists we developed a bespoke control system for the twin waterjet propulsion system to provide fully automated synchronised control of the jets, clutches, thrusters and main engines both in normal forward cruising modes and reverse facing tower operations.”

The electronic system is based on Parker Hannifin’s Iqan mobile controller and associated products. “As well as the electronic supervisory control and monitoring system we also completely re- equipped the Italian Castoldi waterjets hydraulic drive and control systems to provide fully proportional control electronically controlled from the Iqan system. This provides a smoother, more controllable and economic drive system. “

All design work and bench testing took place at Rotec’s premises in Taunton, with the installation, setup and sea trials carried out by Rotec engineers at Coastal Charters home in Cumbria.

It was a challenging, yet ultimately rewarding, experience to be involved with the development of a concept vessel such as this and we wish Stephen and all the crew and team at WaveAccess best of luck with their promotion of the successful and innovative vessel to the industry.

For more information please visit: www.waveaccess.co.uk

Author: Sarka Humpolcova

Date: 06/04/2017

Paul Prouse foreword for BFPDA

Rotec’s own Managing Director, Paul Prouse, was selected to hold a chairman position for the BFPDA (British Fluid Power Distributors Association) throughout 2016. In his 2017 foreword for the association’s publication ‘Yearbook & Members Directory’, Paul talks about two of the topics dominating the headlines of newspapers across the world; Brexit and Women in power…

“It is hard to put pen to paper and not talk about Brexit, the topic has dominated the headlines throughout 2016 cultivated continuously by everyone from small SMEs through to large corporate businesses trying to second guess what ‘best strategy’ for their business should take whilst the politicians arguably find themselves with a task to extract the UK from Europe that in reality, the net effect is unknown along with strategy or policy that was never scripted.

I will come back to Brexit. In the meantime, what has also been interesting throughout the year and in part has caused me to reflect on the situation within the trade members of BFPDA and our industry as a whole is the renewed emphasis on women within the industry. The global stage has been dominated by Mrs Merkel, Mrs May and the near miss of Mrs Clinton joining the ranks as respective leaders of 3 of the world’s wealthiest nations providing a healthy balance in tipping the scales that in part have been dominated by men.”

read the FULL ARTICLE

Rotec repair CGG Veritas’ seismic system in Colombia

CGG Veritas and Rotec Hydraulics have a long history of working together.

CGG is a leader in cutting-edge geoscience. Their commitment to providing innovative and sustainable solutions has seen them crowned a leader in their field. The technology, services and equipment they provide is designed to collect data and images of the sub-surface with great precision. CGG help the oil and gas industry to develop a deeper understanding of the subsurface exploration via state-of-the-art software and data analysis services.

Rotec supplied the company with enormous power packs in past and, in 2010, was contracted again, this time to equip their seismic ship Oceanic Sirius with a bespoke air reduction panel. The large panel is designed to work with a system that maps the sea bed for oil industry. Using acoustic sources towed behind the ship to shoot out high frequency sound waves that bounce off of different layers of the seabed’s sub-surface and get picked up by hydrophones, working a bit like an ultrasound. This data is then recorded and interpreted, helping the experts to make informed decisions about new drilling locations.

Find out more about seismic mapping in THIS VIDEO

The Rotec reduction panel is designed to routinely regulate between air pressure of 140 bar and 30 bar when not in use and was

Reduction Panel on Oceanic Sirius

manufactured in 2010, installed and commissioned on the ship in 2011, running smoothly until a major overhaul in January 2016, when the system had to go through its pressure equipment certification. The system performed great during the testing, but started having problems following the overhaul.

At first the capable CGG engineers were attempting to tackle the issue with Rotec’s telephonic guidance, but due to the nature of their jobs (12 hour shifts and swapping of engineering crews every 5 weeks with practically zero downtime), it was near impossible. They decided to contract one of Rotec’s engineers to repair the system. Claire Brown was scheduled to meet the ship in Barranquilla (Colombia) in September and after a 25 hour journey and a day’s wait she finally boarded the ship together with a group of contractors that were servicing and working on other parts of the ship.

This is what Claire had to say about the experience

“The hotel I was staying in was lovely, but I was advised not to venture outside. The government is currently building new infrastructure, but the city’s poverty is tangible as things stand at the moment. The relative luxury of the hotel was a stark contrast to what unravelled in front of me on our way to the port. I would have liked to see more of the city or the country of course, to form a more complete picture. The mosquito repellent I brought definitely came in handy; they were everywhere (laughing),”

After the initial compulsory ship orientation, Claire got shown to the Chief mechanic, and by 3pm she identified and repaired the problem. However they could not test the system while the ship was still docked, as the air powered guns used to blast out the acoustic waves go off rather loudly. Once out at sea the system performed well and Claire spent additional 5 days on board of Sirius going through their kit, and making sure they had everything they needed, ordering additional items.

Claire says “I quite like going off to places and seeing how other people live, but also I like working with different people. The crew was made up of many different nationalities (British, Canadian, Norwegian, Lithuanian, French, Spanish, Filipino and American). These guys are working such long hours, live in a restricted space but they get on so well, it was pretty inspirational. They make light of the stereotypes, for example they dubbed me as the ‘posh’ one, because of my british accent (laughs)”

Update: Claire has been back for a couple of months and there have been no problems with the system. We are looking forward to offering our marine expertise to the company in future.

Author: Sarka Humpolcova

Date: 03/01/2017

Engineering Talks 1.3 : Interview with an aviation specialist

Name: Richard Quelch

Qualifications: HNC in Mechanical and Structural Engineering

Years of working experience: 34 years

Job Title: Mechanical Design Engineer

Speciality: Aerospace

Where are you from?

Originally from Southampton, but moved into the West Country about 20 years ago. I also lived in Germany, Israel and Brazil for some time, due to work requirements.

Do you have any hobbies?

I love fly-fishing and outdoor pursuits in general, such as gardening; Somerset is a great place for all of these!

I also just recently finished working on an innovative Facebook development project called Aquila – a 42 m unmanned solar-powered drone, designed to fly at 90,000 feet , whose goal is to bring the Internet to remote reaches of the world where there is no satellite coverage. The wing is controlled from the ground and flies in around 60 km radius – providing coverage to huge areas. I thought it was a fun and worthwhile project and offered my company’s services; we became a part of a propulsion unit team. It is currently in a test phase, but the plan is to manufacture 100’s of these to employ all over the world.

Find out more about project Aquila here

Are there some other innovative projects you have been involved in?

Errrm… Yes. Unfortunately can’t mention them in any depth as they were for the Defence Department and are secret. (laughs)

Sounds like you’ve had an interesting career path , can you tell us a bit about it?

Sure. I guess it all started with an apprenticeship with Siemens. I was part of a project developing a towed array sonar for the marine industry – a piece of defence mechanism used on Submarines. I came out with a HNC in Mechanical and Structural Engineering. I then went on to work for Airbus, Embrear & Dornier – on and off for many years and I ended up working all over the world including Germany, Australia, Brazil and Israel. I was part of their teams developing the A340 and also the A380, from conception to finish. Previous and subsequent jobs were with AgustaWestland Helicopters in Yeovil, where I was involved in the EH 101 and also AW159 – “Wildcat” development – the latest craft currently being deployed by the military.

Airbus A340 and A380, Helicopters: EH 101 and AW159 “Wildcat”

What interested you in a job at Rotec?

Well, it’s local, I’ve been travelling most of my life and at 55 I would like to stick to my home (laughs).

I think Rotec has a great future, it’s a company that will expand I think and probably at the correct rate and that appealed to me. Also I enjoy the management as well as the practical side of the job. Rotec have invested in innovative 3D Solidworks software and would like to see it used to it’s full potential and since I have over 15 years of experience of using Solidworks as well as other systems it was a good fit. I am also looking forward to working on some new Rotec product ranges the company are looking to introduce, which I think is very progressive!

If you enjoyed this article you might like these: Engineering Talks 1.1: Interview with an apprentice or Engineering Talks 1.2 : Women in Engineering

Author: Sarka Humpolcova

Date: 24/11/2016

Engineering Talks 1.1 : Interview with an Apprentice

Are you currently considering your options following A-Levels? You might find this article helpful: University Degree vs Apprenticeships: Pros & Cons

Name: Zac Huckle

Job Title: Engineering Apprentice

What does your typical day look like?

I help out around the workshop, working on hose connections, or try to come up with improvements whether that be the way the shop looks or regarding our internal processes. If there is a call out I join one of the engineers and go out to help on the job.

Speaking with Dave Nance, Rotec Plymouth Depot Manager

I heard there is a bit of a story behind employing our new apprentice Zac?

Yeah, Zac has been with us for about 6 months before he became our apprentice. He first joined us as a warehouse assistant, after a bit of an uphill battle (laughing). He send his CV in and at first I didn’t think his skill set was exactly what we were looking for so I didn’t pursue it any further. However he just turned up at the store one day, and I was really busy, but we had a quick chat and I was intrigued and invited him for an interview. Long story short, we gave him a job! He was great, right from the start he showed great attitude and initiative. He had no trouble following the tasks laid out for him, always going above and beyond of what was required. He has brought a number of improvements to our processes, organising the store and coming up with fresh ideas. We had an apprentice at the time, but it didn’t go very well and when the position opened up Zac offered to step in, becoming an engineering apprentice. Zac is 20, which unfortunately means the apprenticeship cost is a bit higher than usual (The National Apprenticeship Service only contributes 50% as opposed to 100% t the cost of the course for 19-24 year olds), but because Zac has proven himself on the shop floor and out on site already, it was a no brainer. Carl (Rotec warehouse manager) is not very happy however, because he is losing a good pair of hands now Zac is being sent out on jobs more and more often.

Speaking to Zac:

What did you do before you joined Rotec?

I actually lived in Canada for almost 7 years before moving to the UK and joining Rotec. I completed my higher education there, after which I became a mechanic. I grew up around heavy machinery, with my dad working in the plant and tool hire industry. I learned how to drive diggers, dump truck and other heavy machinery and wanted to become a truck driver for as long as I can remember, but as I got older I started leaning more towards becoming a mechanic instead. I like working with my hands and love all things mechanical so it was an easy choice!

What made you take up engineering then?

Initially it was simply the closest thing to my mechanical background. When I moved to the UK I found out that my Canadian drivers licence couldn’t be transferred, stopping me from working as a mechanic as a driver’s licence is required because of the insurance cover. So I started looking at what I could do and I came across Rotec, luckily, as I really like working here! There’s a lot of variety.

Why were you interested in becoming an apprentice?

I feel I was given a chance, that perhaps the company has taken a bit of a gamble on me and I feel that studying and bettering myself will allow me to bring more value to the business in the long term and give back to the company, if you know what I mean?

This week was your first day at college, and I understand you were put through some vocational tests and received the highest scores all the way across the board (10! Congratulations btw!). What were the tests focused on?

I was asked to do a variety of tasks based around metal work.

We are looking forward to following Zac’s journey and future successes. He is currently based in our depot in Plymouth (lucky man, you can judge for yourself).

Author: Sarka Humpolcova

Date: 07/10/2016

Rotec Hydraulic depot in the Plymouth marina

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