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PRODUCT News
58
MODERN MINING
August 2017
In its biggest sea vessel project ever
undertaken, Hytec successfully designed,
manufactured, installed and commis-
sioned all hydraulics for three systems on
board the most technologically advanced
marine diamond sampling and exploration
vessel in the world for its client, De Beers
Marine.
Hytec, part of the Hytec Group, was
responsible for all hydraulic related aspects
of the heave compensation system, the
launch and recovery system (LARS) and a
world-first advanced sub-sea sampling sys-
tem called Seabed Tool (SBT) for the brand
new Debmarine Namibia-owned sampling
vessel, the mv SS Nujoma.
Contracted by De Beers Marine South
Africa in Cape Town, Hytec Cape Town
was brought into the project as far back as
2012 for the pre-feasibility and feasibility
studies. These were completed during the
first half of 2015 and Hytec received the
hydraulic orders for the SBT in July 2015
and for the LARS in September the same
Hytec provides hydraulic systems on sampling vessel
year. Design, manufacture, assembly and
successful testing of the SBT were com-
pleted in July 2016, while the manufacture
and assembly of the LARS systemmodules,
carried out in Johannesburg, was com-
pleted and delivered to De Beers Marine in
Cape Town in August 2016.
Hytec’s scope of work included the
hydraulic installation and testing of the
heave compensation system and the
design, manufacture and installation of the
LARS and the SBT hydraulic systems. The
LARS and the SBT hydraulic systems were
both designed andmanufactured by Hytec
and the passive heave compensation sys-
tem was designed and manufactured by
Bosch Rexroth in Boxtel, Netherlands. All
systems were designed using high-quality
Bosch Rexroth equipment.
The passive heave compensation sys-
tem consists of cylinders connected to
a hydraulic power unit and accumulator
banks.
The hydraulic ring main for the LARS
A from-the-deck view of the Seabed Tool (SBT),
a world-first advanced sub-sea sampling system
aboard the mv SS Nujoma.