30,000 Bags of Potential…

It may not look like much, but this 50kg parachute-style air lift bag represents a significant milestone for UK buoyancy and ballast specialist Unique Seaflex.

Destined to be part of a spread of air lift bags supplied on hire to Bibby Offshore for their North Sea operations, this bag carries the serial number 30,000 – a landmark in the 26-year history of the Isle of Wight based manufacturer.

Air Bag Roots

It is also in fact a case of return to roots for Seaflex, as when established as something of a cottage industry back in 1987 in a partitioned-off corner of an old boatbuilding shed, bags of this size were the core business – and the largest bag produced offered only 500kg of uplift.

In 2013, the largest bag produced at Seaflex’s purpose-built Cowes facility comes in at 50t -1000 times the capacity of this modest-looking 50kg bag.

Global Success

Mark Board, the now-retired founder of Seaflex, commented “When I started out 26 years ago I could hardly imagine the global success story that Seaflex would become today – and supplying the 30,000th bag is tribute to the hard work and dedication of everyone who has worked in the business over this time.”

60,000th Air Lift Bag?

“Seaflex owes a debt of honour to their many thousands of customers past and present, who have taken them to this notable milestone.  With the business going through a period of significant worldwide growth, we expect Seaflex to be supplying their 60,000th bag into the market a whole lot sooner than the year 2039.” added Harry Ghandi, CEO of the Unique Maritime Group – longtime Middle Eastern representatives of Seaflex, and owners of the business since 2011.

New Partner for the Netherlands

Seaflex is pleased to announce the appointment of Robin Jansen of P.C. Marine Agencies BV as our new stockholding ballast agent for the Netherlands market.

Robin is now stocking Seaflex WaterLoad bags along with load shackles, as well as Seaflex Lifeboat Testing kits, at his Groningen facility – ready for immediate despatch to meet urgent customer requirements.  Robin will also be representing Seaflex’s market-leading range of buoyancy bags and associated installation aids within his home market.

You can visit Robin and Seaflex  on Stand 11.011 at the upcoming Offshore Energy exhibition at the Amsterdam RAI on October 15th & 16th.

Cowes Week

3rd – 10th August 2013

Cowes Week is one of the longest running and largest sailing regattas in the world. With 40 races each day, up to 1,000 boats and 8,500 competitors from Olympic champions to weekend sailors, it marks the peak of the racing and sailing social calendar.

Start/finish line at Cowes Week

Seaflex’s QHSE Manager, Ian Margham, will be racing during the week and with Seaflex providing the turning marks as well as the start and finish buoys off the Royal Yacht Squadron, he will find himself meeting a number of the company’s SeaMark inflatable buoys.

All races start from the Royal Yacht Squadron at the mouth of the very busy Cowes River, with ferries, freighters, oil tankers and cruise liners following the channel along the Solent, as well as hundreds (and hundreds!) of yachts. This can lead to some very near misses as wa shown in 2011 when a yacht was dismasted by an oil tanker.

Most of the time the event runs like clockwordk, but then it has been running since 1826, so they’ve had plenty of practice.

The event sponsors, Aberdeen Asset Management, have all the racing and social events on their website:

Round the Island Race

The Round the Island Race is an annual event held  in June and is a major part of the rich sailing tradition of the Isle of Wight. Sponsoring the event this year was JP Morgan Asset Management.

Rounding the Needles Photo by Patrick Eden – http://www.patrickeden.co.uk

Now in its 82nd year over 1,400 yachts and around 16,000 sailors take part making it one of the largest yacht races in the world – and the fourth largest participation sporting event in the UK.

Competitors come from all over the UK, Europe, the USA and around the world to sail the 50 nautical mile course around the Isle of Wight, starting and finishing at Cowes.  Most boats take hours to finish the course, but the record set by the professional sailors is 3hrs 53mins 05secs for a monohull, set by Mike Slade on ICAP Leopard in 2008, and 3hrs 08mins 29secs for a multihull boat set by Francis Joyon in 2001.

A Record Breaking Day

At least that was the case until this year’s event on Saturday 1st June. UK sailor Ben Ainslie, winner of four Olympic golds, knocked 16 mins and 14 secs off Francis Joyon’s 2001 record with a time of 2hr 52min 15sec on a 45-foot wing-powered catamaran, imaginatively named “AC45 JP Morgan BAR”.

‘Back of the Wight’ – Photo by Patrick Eden – http://www.patrickeden.co.uk

Then Mike Slade, on the 100-foot yacht “Leopard”, broke his own monohull record by 9 minutes 45 seconds in a time of 3hr 43min 50sec.

With Seaflex based in Cowes at the heart of the event, it’s not surprising that some of the team would be involved. This year the company was represented by Business Development Manager, Ben Board sailing on ‘Skibereen’ – a Fastnet 34 sloop built in 1975. Ben and his crew finished a creditable 289th out of nearly 1,500 competitors, even though Ben insists, “We’re not serious racers . . .”

Laying Underwater Pipelines and Cables

Laying underwater pipelines and cables is fraught with difficulty and would be almost impossible without the use of buoyancy bags. Buoyancy aids make the process of moving and laying underwater objects a much simpler process through the use of a relatively simple technology based on a simple concept.

IBUs used for pipeline buoyancy

The ‘Overpressure’ Principle

Inflatable buoyancy aids are made from flexible materials and become squashed under pressure but expand as pressure decreases. They work on the principle of overpressure. As the bag is lowered deeper into the water, it decreases in volume because the air inside gets compressed and occupies less volume.

On the other hand, as it is raised the air expands and the volume of the bag increases. Buoyancy is equal to the mass of the water displaced by the bag, which is proportional to the volume of the bag. It follows, therefore, that buoyancy decreases as a bag is lowered deeper into the water and increases as it rises up. Using an air hose attached to the bag, more air can be pumped into it whilst in a compressed state. Then as the bag is raised it expands in volume quickly and a huge amount of buoyancy is created. Even a small buoyancy aid can easily lift a weight equivalent to five family cars.

ALBs and ILBs

The two basic types of buoyancy units are ALBs (Air Lifting Bags) and ILBs (Inflatable Buoyancy Units). ALBs are used in operations such as cable floatation where an object needs lifting from the sea bed. They have just one point of attachment, which means that they will remain upright at all times and can be used at any depth. ILBs are used to increase, for example, pipeline buoyancy close to the surface or the buoyancy of any static object just under the water. They cannot be used at great depths and have multiple points of attachment.

Generally, ALBs are the only option when salvaging a vessel or lifting a cable or pipeline deep under water. If an object such as a pontoon or a section of pipeline that is waiting to be laid needs to be floated on the surface of the water, then ILBs are the correct choice. However, there are many complications when working underwater and the choice is not always so simple so it is well worth consulting the experts before starting any work.

Static Load Testing

Static load testing is an essential part of many engineering, building and manufacturing projects. Failure of any load-bearing component, material or structure can endanger lives and cause enormous economic loss. This is why loads and weights must be calculated and tested accurately. Of course, the testing of large or heavy parts requires the use of special equipment.

Static load testing a crane beam

Water Filled Weights

Water filled weights (also known as ballast bags) provide a very flexible method for load testing. Test weights must be sufficiently heavy to ascertain the maximum load of an object, but they should also be reusable and safe to deploy in a test environment. Hard-filled weights are suitable in many tests, but on the largest scale, water-filled weights provide an ideal solution. When empty they weigh just a small fraction of the filled weight so are easy to transport. In use they can be part-filled for any exacting requirements, or used in combination.

Once filled with water these specially constructed bags can weigh anything from 1,000 Kg to 35,000 Kg, ensuring that objects such as structural beams and crane arms can be tested for durability under extreme loads. Objects can be tested in various ways, for example, test weights might be attached to the centre of a steel arch to ascertain load capacity before being (vertically) affixed to one end to test tensile strength. Understanding how components, parts or materials behave under extreme loads in different positions can help engineers create safer, more powerful systems.

Although capable of being used almost anywhere, water-filled weights are often deployed in docks to ensure that parts can be tested without fear of causing structural damage (failed components and the weights attached to them can simply fall into the water). To ensure that materials are tested accurately, the risk of cable failure is reduced by the inclusion of telemetry dual-load shackles and tensile load cells.

For more information see Water Filled Weights.

Air Lift Bags for Marine Salvage

Open bottom air lift bag commonly used for marine salvage

Marine salvage involves recovering a ship and/or its cargo from the seabed following a shipwreck or other maritime accident. Obviously, ships and cargo are heavy objects which cannot be recovered without specialist equipment and knowledge.

Underwater air lifting bags are specifically designed for the recovery of underwater objects that need lifting to the surface. They can also be used as static buoyancy in underwater engineering as they only need a single attachment point and are stable and easy to handle underwater.

Air Lift Bags

Air lifting bags are available in various designs and capacities, so that salvage operators can choose the appropriate level of buoyancy required to lift objects in a controlled fashion. For recovering heavy objects, such as a ship, multiple bags will be necessary to provide a balanced and controlled lift. This is important as objects that are lifted too quickly can reach the surface out of control, posing a risk to the operators and the vessel being salvaged.

Closed or Open?

There are two basic types of lifting bag:

• Closed air lifting bags typically include a safety valve that allows air to be released for a steady, controlled ascent.
• Open bottomed air lift bags work differently as their open bottom allows expanding air to vent freely during an ascent to the surface as pressure decreases.

For this reason, and the ease of handling, open bottomed air lift bags are usually the preferred choice for marine salvage. Their strength, ease of use underwater and predictable behaviour make them the most effective and safest option for most marine lifting operations.

Salvage of the Jean Ricciardi

When the trawler Jean Riccardi suffered a power failure, flooded and sank near the port of Sete, on the French Mediterranean coast, twelve open bottom air lift bags, capable of lifting 20 tonnes each, were used to complete the salvage operation quickly and safely.

Dunkirk ‘little ship’ Recovery

Skylark XI was one of the fleet of ‘little ships’ that rescued Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940 in Operation Dynamo. But for the last two years – since the 70th anniversary of Operation Dynamo – she has been lying on the bed of the River Leven at Balloch in West Dunbartonshire.

With the help of the Royal Navy Clearance Divers the Skylark IX was successfully re-floated on the 18th of October.

Skylark salvage – image from http://www.heraldscotland.com

Using inflatable buoyancy bags the Royal Navy divers from the Faslane base on the Clyde undertook a painstaking 12-hour operation to refloat her. They had to abandon their efforts after the first day but eventually the last of the water was pumped out and the successful operation was completed.

The Skylark was one of the smallest of the “little ships” which responded to the call from Winston Churchill in 1940 to rescue the Allied forces trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Although her capacity was 90 passengers, on each of the four return trips into Dunkirk she brought out 150 exhausted and wounded soldiers .

Seaflex donated six, 2 tonne Inflatable Buoyancy Units with airlines and manifolds to use in the operation.

STV News article and News video footage on the first day’s attempt.
The Scottish Herald article and images.

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LIFTEX EXHIBITION 2012

29th & 30th November, Ricoh Arena, Coventry

Seaflex will this year have a stand at the LiftEx Exhibition and the venue is Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now in its 8th year, LiftEx has become the leading event for the lifting industry and Seaflex will be displaying it’s range of water filled load test weights,

LiftEx 2012 will be open to visitors for two days; from 10:00 – 17:00 on Thursday 29th November and from 09:00 – 14:00 on Friday 30th November.

We look forward to seeing you.

Seaflex New Facility Goes Green

Seaflex New Facility Eco Friendly

Seaflex new facility is now well underway and ground work for the water capture system have been completed. As well as putting less strain on the environment this water capture system will save money for the business and provide well needed supply of water for there servicing operation.

Solar Panels

Seaflex are now working with Island Sustainable Heat and Power Limited, who have provided calculations based on generating electricity from solar panel that will be placed on the roof of the new facility. It is expected that when this project is running it will produce 40% of seaflex,s annual Electrical Power.