Page 49: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2001)

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Clamp Supplier Dives Into Project

Bluefin Robotics Corp. called on

Clampco — a manufacturer of stainless steel T-bolt band clamps and V-band couplings — when it needed help "test- ing the waters." Bluefin specializes in manufacturing underwater robotic equipment for offshore survey, military,

ABOVE: This Bluefin AUV is outfitted with a cus- tom designed 316 stainless steel half coupling from Clampco Products Inc. The coupling was designed to lay flush with the exterior of the AUV as well as to provide ease of assembly and dis- assembly. BELOW: V-band couplings from

Clampco Products Inc. can be manufactured in a wide variety of diameters and styles. and scientific research customers.

By working with Clampco Products

Inc., Bluefin was able to complete an underwater robotics project for the U.S.

Navy in record time. Bluefin designed, built, tested, and demonstrated its AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) for the Coastal System Station and the

Office of Naval Research in approxi- mately eight months — half the time typically required for projects of a simi- lar scale. Sam Tolkoff, engineer at

Bluefin, attributes this rapid develop- ment to one of its suppliers, Clampco

Products, Inc. "We considered several other suppliers when we first looked into the project," says Tolkoff. "Howev- er, Clampco was able to offer us the best lead time, and this is exactly what we needed - fast delivery as well as special attention and support for our design requirements." Clampco handles special requests as a matter of course. For instance, Tolkoffs team needed to

April, 2001 design the AUV with robust modular joints, which would let operators disas- semble the equipment in two directions.

They could either remove panels from the AUV or interchange the tail section with the top sections of 10 other vehi- cles. A V-band coupling is a fastener that offers this type of flexibility. But Bluefin had special design considerations above and beyond the standard V-band cou- pling. Tolkoff worked with Carl Klaus, sales engineer at Clampco, regarding

Bluefin's custom requirements. Typical- ly, V-bands have a gap under the latch mechanism to facilitate installation.

However, the Bluefin engineers wanted to reduce the gap to increase total sur- face contact with the flanges. So Clam- pco simply rotated the position of the retainer segments so that the ends of the segments would sit under the latch. To improve the coupling's corrosion resis- tance in the harsh salt-water environ- ment, Clampco used 316 stainless steel bands.

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TRANTER

A b DOVER ) DIVERSIFIED COMPANY

Tranter PHE, Inc. A RO. Box 2289 A Wichita Falls, TX 76307 A [940] 723-7125 • Fax: (940) 723-5131 http://www.tranter.eom/m t. E-mail: [email protected] ©2001 Tranter, inc.

XCHANGERS

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