Page 25: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2023)

Falmouth Scienti? c Inc. www.falmouth.com

Falmouth Scienti? c, located in the heart of the New

England marine technology cluster, has a 10,000 sq. ft purpose built facility allows for innovative and reliable sensor, system and transducer solutions for a variety of global applications in salt and freshwater environments.

The 2023 areas of development focus are standard and custom transducers and the HMS-620 series of

Exail

Bubble Gun Bubbleless Seismic Sources and Systems. www.exail.com Two transducer developments in the past year include a new design to replace an obsolete underwater telephone

Exail launched Gaps M3, a subsea ultra-short baseline transducer for a full ocean depth rated manned submers- (USBL) acoustic positioning system for permanent vessel ible. The design is a pressure compensated high power installation. Gaps M3 is a USBL positioning system with tonpilz design with integrated impedance matching to no embedded Inertial Navigation System (INS), making it allow both backward compatibility with the existing Un- a cost- effective choice for operators who can rely on exist- derwater Telephone system and to allow for higher pow- ing onboard navigation systems. Intended for permanent er capability for the next generation system. Second was

USBL installations, Gaps M3 can indeed be coupled with the development of an integrated low frequency broad- navigation systems already on board to provide users with band transducer and power ampli? er sub-system for an continuous access to high-level precision meeting any op-

AUV application. The integrated transducer and ampli- erational requirement for survey and Dynamic Positioning ? er meet the requirements of low frequency, high power (DP) operations. Deployments from opportunity vessels while minimizing overall mass. The HMS-620 series of are still possible thanks to Gaps M3 integrated MEMS At- bubbleless seismic sources have two new sources that titude and Heading Reference System (AHRS). Bene? t- have been developed with a lower frequency spectrum ting from the existing Gaps Series renowned features, the and higher energy within the same footprint as thecur-

Gaps M3 is equipped with a 3D, 4-hydrophone acoustic rent sources. The HMS-620HP is the same footprint as antenna which provides maximum 200° aperture, along the standard 18” / 46cm source. The HMS-620LFHP with new telemetry features, enabling advanced acoustic is the same footprint as the HMS-620LF 36” / 92cm communication capabilities. It offers true horizontal track- source. The Bubble Gun Bubbleless Sources are elec- ing and communication capabilities in shallow and deep tro-mechanical devices with an air volume inside and water, especially when multiple vehicles need to be lo- gasket seals to prevent water ingress. When electrical cated simultaneously at 360°. The Gaps M3 is available energy is put into the system, the system compresses. in an export-free version with a 995m maximum operat-

Once electrical energy input is removed, the system ex- ing range and in an extended range version for operations pands generating a positive pressure pulse. This is simi- to depths over 4000m. Exail also launched the Rovins 9 lar to the secondary bubble pulse of an airgun without

DVL, a new all-in-one system for subsea vehicles that requiring a compressor. The resulting output is a single combines the best of inertial navigation and Doppler Ve- wavelet with a very repeatable amplitude signature and locity Log (DVL) technologies in one tightly integrated narrow pulse length.

system. Described as highly compact for easy vehicle integration, the Rovins 9 DVL all-in-one design com- bines, in a single housing, Exail advanced Fiber-Optic based INS with a Nortek DVL. This tight integration of raw sensor data from both INS and DVL provides opera- tors with highly accurate position, velocity, and attitude information, even in challenging subsea environments,

Exail said. This system is suited for subsea companies looking to maximize ef? ciency, and allows for higher levels of reliability, with a position accuracy of up to 0.02%TD and a heading accuracy of up to 0.01°RMS, according to the manufacturer. www.marinetechnologynews.com 25

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