August 2015 - Marine Technology Reporter

MTR100: SEACON

Posted by Irina Tabakina

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For more than 45 years since the company was established, the newly acquired TE SEACON Group have become a global manufacturer of a wide range of more than 2,500 underwater electrical and fiber optic connectors.
Offshore equipment must operate safely and reliably 24/7/365 under harsh conditions. Building on its expertise in designing robust, reliable connector systems to meet the challenging and harsh environments of subsea environments, it works closely with both equipment designers and exploration/production companies to create connectivity solutions to meet the specific demands of an application.  Also, with over 45 years’ experience, TE’s SEACON business has developed one of the widest ranges of underwater electrical and fiber optic connectors available anywhere in the world. TE now offers a complete connector system solutions for harsh offshore environments serving the global oil and gas industry.

Underwater-mateable connectors have enabled underwater industries to build modular components for subsea use. In particular, these wet-mate technologies have allowed subsea systems to be assembled on the seafloor. This has allowed the user to maximize modular system size and weight within the constraints of their installation equipment whilst, once installed subsea, still able to connect these modules to use interconnected and distributed communication, control and monitoring systems. A major consideration in the selection of underwater-mateable connectors is the intended mode of operation of that product with reference to it’s specification and hence cost.
Underwater-mateable connectors are used for joining up electrical or optical circuits underwater. They provide a termination of an underwater cable or oil-filled hose, containing electrical conductors or optical fibers or both. This allows divers, Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV’s), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV’s) or automatic connection systems, to facilitate the connection of the two halves underwater. The impact of being able to do this has enabled significant progress in the modularization of underwater systems in the oil and gas, defense and oceanographic industries, allowing the following:
•    Modular sub-systems to be installed underwater, one at a time, and then later interconnected together to distribute power and communications, forming larger underwater systems
•    Facilities to include ports for diagnostic maintenance activities or for future expansion
•    Modular systems designed to suit the constraints of the installation equipment being used
The HYDRALIGHT is a field proven, second generation underwater mateable, high integrity, fiber optic connector. This 8 channel, fully underwater mateable, oil filled pressure balanced and field proven connector is fully qualified to 7,000m, with an average single mode insertion loss of less that .2dB and a average single mode back reflection of -50 dB. With a design life of 30 years and a life cycle of a minimum of 100 mate/de-mates, this connector meets the following specifications:
•    Norsk Hydro NHT-152-00073 Rev 04H
•    Statoil TR1233
•    Elf Exploration AO-32-2-011-LT-00-SN-005 Rev C
•    Total GSEPSPS021
•    BP GP78-21


The MTR100 is Marine Technology Reporter's Annual report on 100 leading companies in the subsea industry, published in the July/August 2015 edition of MTR - http://www.marinetechnologynews.com/Magazine

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