Ashtead Trusts in iXblue Tech

Subsea equipment specialist Ashtead Technology has boosted its rental fleet with an investment of £1 million in the latest iXblue technology over the past 12 months.

Ashtead is currently the only rental company to offer the iXblue GAPS-NG system with the new Telemetry capability, Ultra Short Baseline (USBL) positioning system for locating subsea assets. The company purchased two of the systems in January this year.

The system, similar to its predecessor GAPS, provides positioning of any subsea object in the most demanding environments, including extremely shallow waters. With the new Telemetry capability the system can now also programme, command and calibrate compatible beacons on the seabed,

Ashtead’s rental fleet also includes the addition of further iXblue RAMSES. RAMSES can be used to track the position of subsea structures without the need for multiple transponders or umbilicals.

Allan Pirie, chief executive of Ashtead, said: “This investment demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the global offshore market, by offering the latest, highly efficient technologies to support even the most complex projects worldwide.

“We are determined to provide the most innovative solutions to the subsea market and building on our pool of iXblue equipment is as a direct result of listening to our customers’ requirements. We look forward to seeing them continue to enjoy the benefits.”

One of the latest additions to the Ashtead rental pool is iXblue’s PHINS 6K system, an inertial navigation tool for providing positioning, heading, attitude, speed depth and heave data for deep water operations.