A new high velocity water jetting system is to be fitted to all James Fisher Subsea Excavation (JFSE) tools stationed at their hubs in the UK, UAE, Singapore, Venezuela, USA, Brazil, China and Mexico.
JFSE, who conduct a non-contact form of and whose tools are used for pipeline and cable trenching, deburial, rock dump dispersal and seabed clearance and preparations, have patented this new unique design.
The centrally-located jet has been designed specifically to facilitate the excavation of soils previously considered too dense to excavate using traditional mass/controlled flow techniques.
This new technology means moving away from the customary designs which ordinarily place jets aside mass/controlled flow excavation equipment (M/CFE). Placing the jets in a more central position massively reduces velocity degradation and allows excavators to cut soils with up to double the strength that was managed by any previous M/CFE system.
The jets could also improve efficiency and decrease operational time of excavations.
Graham Murdoch, technical director at JFSE, said: “We are committed to using our world-leading knowledge and expertise to continue to lead innovation in the sector. Our developments are all designed to bring very real, tangible benefits to our clients.
“Continuously evolving our service with advancements such as the centrally-located jetting system further cements our position as the leading and most versatile M/CFE provider in an ever-changing global market.
“Discussions with our clients identified this enhancement would offer significant benefits. We undertook a detailed computational fluid dynamics exercise to fully understand the effects of this setup and the results were impressive. We can now cut soils with shear strengths almost double that which any other M/CFE system can realise.”