Straightpoint Launches Subsea Link

Straightpoint, a Crosby Group company, has launched the Subsea Link, a standard product for applications up to 2,000m beneath the water’s surface.

The product can be rigged with Crosby’s remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) shackles and the company’s Trawlex shackle range, amongst others.

The IP68 / NEMA 6P-rated Subsea Link also boasts components from SubConn, a specialist manufacturer of pluggable electrical connectors.

SP staged the launch of the product at the Offshore Energy Exhibition and Conference (OEEC) in Amsterdam, where attendees noted its potential in subsea and submersible projects where accurate load monitoring is required.

David Ayling, global business development director for load monitoring solutions, said: “There will be existing distributors and end users of SP equipment that will encircle the product but we anticipate interest from specialist equipment and service providers who might not have already considered the benefits of such a solution, based on the technological advancement that we have been able to pioneer in the offshore and subsea sectors.”

He added: “Until now, oceanography and navigation project decision makers, or aquaculture professionals, might have had to engage in lengthy dialogue with a load monitoring specialist to acquire an engineered solution that might arrive on site many weeks down the road. With the Subsea Link, they can effectively source an ROV load shackle as they would any other standard product in our portfolio.”

SP worked closely with the local Portsmouth University, where a testing laboratory supports diving and underwater engineering courses.

Ayling said: “The benefits were twofold in that we were able to utilize the world-class, underwater testing facilities, which principally replicated the extreme water pressures at depth; and students could engage with a real-life product that will add safety and efficiency to the operations that they may one day be responsible for.”