Page 53: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2018)

New Acoustic Release Mooring Connectors

InterMoor recently introduced the Inter-M Release mooring connector. Acoustic release mooring connectors allow a rig’s mooring legs to be released remotely and immediately, in case of emergencies, severe weather events, or simply to save time and money during rig moves.

The new connector is touted by the manufacturer for being smaller and lighter, while still able to disconnect at full ca- pacity.The device was designed using the platform of sister company SRP’s Rocksteady mooring connector and its sec- ondary actuated release system, with a control system devel- oped in conjunction with Teledyne Marine. The control system uses military-grade, high-? delity Teledyne Benthos acoustic modems, and implements domain key authorization, unique addressing, network relay and frequency hopping techniques, ensuring the mooring connectors are never affected by ob- structions or con? icting noise. The domain key and unique ad- dresses eliminate the possibility of an inadvertent release and allows for the connector to be actuated individually, in clus- ters, or even sequenced in any order.

These new electronic features have been implemented with- out sacri? cing battery life, which has been improved from 18 months in old acoustic release connectors to ? ve years in the

Inter-M Release.

transceivers to be inter-changeable. In addition, the 1100 series of transponders now all feature data telemetry functions which can be used when used with the Nexus 2 USBL. The tran- sponders themselves can be used without telemetry with all

Applied Acoustic USBL systems, as well as those from other manufacturers, thereby maintaining their overall ? exibility.

To meet the challenges faced by surveyors involved in shal- low water, ultra-high de? nition geophysical surveys Applied

Acoustics has re-designed to Dura-Spark range. The sparker sound sources now feature faster rep rates, tunable electrode banks and adjustable source heights, all resulting in clearer high-resolution data, ideal for use in offshore wind farm sur- veys.

The Dura-Spark UHD

Intermoor

Applied Acoustics www.marinetechnologynews.com

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