MTR100 '13: Birns Inc.

Marine Technology Reporter

Since 1954, BIRNS has provided solutions trusted in the planet’s most demanding environments—from deep ocean and marine applications to military programs and nuclear power facilities. With sophisticated lines of high performance connectors, custom cable assemblies, ABS PDA certified penetrators and lighting systems, BIRNS is an ISO 9001:2008 certified industry leader committed to a long legacy of developing new technology for highly competitive markets.

The Company
In 2014, BIRNS will celebrate its 60th year in the subsea industry, with a long and successful history of contributing important technology along the way. In the 1950s, the company was first called upon to develop subsea systems for the US Navy, and today the Company is proud to have more than half a century of consecutive partnership with the US Navy, as well as other military organizations worldwide. Recent BIRNS’ lighting contributions include the next generation of extreme depth subsea lighting systems, such as robust LED solutions, and the BIRNS Aurora a high intensity 14,000 lumen Light Emitting Plasma (LEP) deep submergence light. BIRNS launched its Connector Division in 1990, responding to customer and industry demand for quality and reliability. The division quickly met with huge success, and led to the development of several flagship connector lines, including the 6km rated BIRNS Millennium range—miniature, high-density metal shell connectors that set the benchmark for elevated bandwidth delivery. With configurable inserts for both high (= 3.6kV) and low (= 600V) voltage, the typical loss for a cable assembly of the series is < .5 dB. Today, BIRNS leads the industry in the development of fiber optic advances, both in penetrators and connector systems, and has been called upon to develop numerous unique Electro-Opto-Mechanical (EOM) cable assemblies, all with immense performance capabilities, and capable of providing load strengths of >50,000 lbs.

The Tech
BIRNS is trusted globally by customers with demanding marine and offshore applications to provide lighting and connector systems for manned and unmanned submersibles, commercial diving applications, and security requirements. Therefore, BIRNS consistently ensures that its certifications and standards meet or exceed the most exacting industry demands. BIRNS’ cable shop is SUBMEPP-certified to NAVSEA S9320-AM-PRO-020 (one of only seven commercial firms and five US Navy yards to be so certified) and its Quality System is certified to ISO 9001:2008 by DNV and complies with NRC 10CFR50, Appendix B. All BIRNS QA personnel and production technicians are certified to both J-STD-001 Class 3 and WHMA-A-620-A Class 3. The company has held ABS Product Design Assessment (PDA) Certification for its commercial submarine and man-rated SAT-system penetrators for ABS-classed vessels since 2011.
 

(As published in the July/August 2013 edition of Marine Technologies - www.seadiscovery.com)

Marine Technology Magazine, page 54, Jul 2013

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