Balmoral invests in new ROV buoyancy plant

Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomously operated vehicles (AUVs) are becoming progressively more sophisticated in the tasks being demanded of them – from exploration and installation exercises to production operations and decommissioning projects.

The ever-increasing global demand for all classes of vehicles, and the corresponding requirement for buoyancy packs, has seen Aberdeen-based Balmoral Offshore Engineering completely overhaul its ROV buoyancy production capability into a dedicated centre of excellence at its city HQ. The move has seen the company create approximately 20 new jobs spanning design, engineering and manufacturing.

Following a £1m+ investment in the plant and supporting infrastructure, Jim Milne, chairman and managing director of Balmoral, told ROV Planet: “The last couple of years have seen an upturn in demand for ROVs around the world. This helped us make the decision to refurbish our buoyancy processing facility and increase production capacity so that we can meet customers’ lead times which are often necessarily short.

“Our impressive new milling and boring CNC capability has made a huge difference in terms of improved manufacturing tolerances as well as product processing time.”

The new facility incorporates an end-to-end process that includes design, testing, temperature-controlled curing facilities and a state-of-the-art buoyancy block boring and milling plant.

By bringing the complete process in-house Balmoral now creates intricate ROV/AUV buoyancy profiles with virtually no size limitations at its CAD/CAM-controlled operation.



Pic: Balmoral’s new ROV buoyancy plant offers ‘end-to-end’ processing. (Photograph courtesy of Fugro)

Location: Aberdeen, United Kingdom