Modern Mining August 2017

PRODUCT News

Hytec provides hydraulic systems on sampling vessel

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

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.

58  MODERN MINING  August 2017