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PLUMBING THE DEPTHS! |
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Air Power and Hydraulics, the innovative hydraulics design and manufacturing firm in Glasgow, is back in the news this time plumbing the depths.
For APH, plumbing the depths is a reflection of its skills in refining hydraulics technology. For some years, Air Power & Hydraulics has worked closely with clients Soil Machine Dynamics, builders of the renowned Sub Sea Ploughs, used on the floor of the world's oceans to lay vital communications cables to depths of 1500 meters. Itself a masterpiece of technology, the plough is a complex of mobile manoeuvrings underwater, variously used to dig trenches, lift cables, place and recover them from the sea bed and power itself forwards, sideways, backwards to carefully defined routes, all operated by remote computer control and monitored by video cameras from a special control cabin.
These precise movements, naturally enough, depend on advanced hydraulic operations at different sub sea pressures and Air Power & Hydraulics has worked closely with the client company to develop total success. Now many sub sea ploughs have been built and are in full time deployment with the major global telephone and communications multi-nationals.
"The work we did," says APH Managing Director Ian Paterson, "Was to devise, with Soil Machine Dynamics a number of hydraulic cylinders, based on our CEPAC subsea design, for the operational part of the plough. There is a skid cylinder which governs the depth of the trough into which the cable is placed; steering cylinders help the plough determine a precise direction; the cylinders lift the plough vertically off the sea bed after it has been ploughed and there is also a disc cylinder for back filling which pushes into the sea bed and cuts a slice, allowing the cable which the plough is laying to be pushed under the sea bed. All in all, it was an exciting development period for us and now, twelve years on, we and Soil Machine Dynamics can fairly claim to be leaders in this field. Each new model that is built slightly refines the technology we have developed. We know we are on the right lines when big international cable networks seek us out."
"Soil Machine Dynamics commented: 'We called in APH for this project because of their expertise. Sharing our skills with the clever input and knowhow of APH was a satisfying experience." |
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