Global Marine Group: “The air dryer has worked particularly well when recovering the cable from the seabed.”

Global Marine Group: “Engineering A Clean And Connected Future.”

Global Marine Group is a leading provider of offshore engineering services through its four main brands:

  • Global Marine – fibre-optic cable installation and maintenance for the telecommunications, oil and gas and utilities markets
  • Global Offshore – cable installation, repair and trenching for offshore renewables, utilities and oil and gas clients
  • OceanIQ – subsea cable data, survey and route engineering for the telecommunications and offshore wind sectors
  • CWind – inspections, maintenance and repair services, crew transfer vessels and training courses for the offshore wind industry.

Its many partnerships include a successful joint venture in China with SBSS and in Taiwan with CWind Taiwan.

Marine Cable Group - Case Study

Problem: How To Dry Cables During Deployment

Global Marine Group has a long and proud history in the specialist deployment of subsea cables – inevitably in challenging conditions.

But it needed a drying solution when water on a cable jacket was causing a deployment machine to lose its grip on the cable.

So Global Marine Group called in ACI…

We have extensive experience in cable drying – but Global Marine Group’s requirement was a new challenge for us:

  • The cable diameter ranged from 17 mm to 32 mm (but we usually work with <10 mm cables).
  • The cable can be moving at up to 10,000 metres per hour.
  • The application area is an open deck on a vessel operating in the world’s oceans. This wet environment is much more challenging than a factory on dry land.
  • Seawater is highly corrosive.
  • There are adhesive marker tapes on the cable at prescribed intervals. They must not be removed in the drying process.

And the solution had to be delivered within constrained delivery dates, due to the nature of Global Marine Group’s work. It had to be ready for when the cable deployment vessel was next in port.

ACI Global Marine Group

Solution: Ring Air Knife

ACI created a ring air knife drying system with a high-pressure side-channel blower.

The ring air knife is hinged so the cable doesn’t need to be threaded through the centre – instead, it is closed around the cable.

We manufactured the equipment from 316L stainless steel, which is highly resistant to corrosion, thanks to its low carbon content and added molybdenum.

Our system included polymer rollers to keep the cable centred within the ring – ensuring that it did not contact the steel edges.

Result: Problem Solved

ACI’s bespoke air knife system was simple but effective (and one of the more unusual cable-drying solutions we’ve created). It works well for the intended requirement.

Global Marine Group said…

“The air dryer has worked particularly well when recovering the cable from the seabed with it positioned in-between the stern sheaves and the linear cable engine.”
Kevin Connor

Cable and Survey Manager , Global Marine Group

Get Expert Technical Advice

Companies around the world depend on ACI’s air knife technology to solve a wide range of technical challenges – many of them unusual.

Often they involve drying, but not always: powerful jets of clean air have lots of applications across a wide range of sectors.

Many of ACI’s innovative bespoke and custom-configured solutions utilise some off-the-shelf components. So smart, effective solutions don’t have to be costly.

 

Why ACI?

50+ years of technical expertise and experience.

World-class solutions – US (Maine) subsidiary. Distributors, agents and partners in 40+ countries.

Performance guaranteed – all standard and custom systems will perform as tested and specified. Guaranteed results and savings.

Advanced quieter air blowers that take up less space.

US designed and manufactured equipment.

Thousands of happy customers across the world.