Trelleborg Expands Offering
Trelleborg Offshore has further extended it capabilities and offering for the entire offshore industry after its Houston-based product testing facility underwent a significant redesign and renovation earlier this year.
Representing a multi-million dollar investment for the company, the redesign of the state-of-the-art research and development facility has allowed Trelleborg to pro-actively upgrade its equipment beyond current API standards for buoyancy testing, opening up the facility’s tanks for use on other applications. In addition, the organization can now offer hydrostatic testing services for its clients existing equipment, or to assist in new product development.
The redesign, carried out by the Operations and Quality team, was led by Trelleborg Engineer, Stuart Lindeman, who boasts an impressive academic and testing background in both offshore and aerospace engineering. He says: “The complete re-design further demonstrates our long standing commitment to developing innovative new product and material technology specifically designed to withstand the harshest offshore environments.
“The installation of the best subsea instrumentation available, including new testing systems, sensors and a ground-breaking automation system, provides a further boost to Trelleborg’s industry leading in-house testing capabilities – helping Trelleborg products reach even greater depths in the offshore market.”
The re-design of the Houston-based facility has also allowed Trelleborg to streamline its testing process and data organization. The equipment will be upgraded with the latest software, enabling Trelleborg to obtain even more detailed results from each test carried out. Tests that will be carried out at the facility include hydrostatic testing, uplift determination, water ingress, bulk modulus, compression and creep.
Vice President of HSE & Quality Assurance at Trelleborg Offshore, Valer Banushi, commented: “Our in-house testing, research and development capabilities give us the enviable ability to keep the majority of our development processes within the confines of our own facilities. It also enables us to develop new ground-breaking products for use at increasingly greater depths and in high pressure and extreme temperature environments.”
The Houston testing center hosts the largest privately held test tank rated to 12,000ft. Trelleborg also has three additional test tanks two rated to 11,300ft and one rated to 8,000 ft. The Boston testing center has two smaller test tanks used mostly to test ROV block that are rated to 30,000 and 60,000 ft. In addition, Trelleborg is installing a new test tank rated to 22,500 ft in the new Brazil facility.
The newly renovated facility is set up to test to API 16F specifications and provides far more advanced testing in the area of predictive modeling of buoyancy loss. In anticipation of the offshore industry’s drive to go deeper and an increased demand for testing, the Houston facility ensures Trelleborg is better positioned to meet those demands.