Riding the high seas of success
The latest 3.6m Fairhurst Marine Navigation buoy waits outside the Met Office headquarters prior to testing.
British buoy manufacturer Orchid Plastics has secured a significant business deal with the UK’s weather service organisation, the Met Office.
Orchid Plastics, the manufacturer of the Fairhurst Marine Navigation buoy hull, has recently delivered the latest 3.6m unit to the Met Office headquarters in Exeter prior to its testing phase.
The Met Office buoy hull has been built to strict requirements and the platform is tailored to carry a range of meteorological and oceanographic sensor packages. It will be tried out this winter in the North East Atlantic in some of the worst sea conditions found anywhere in the world.
There’s reason to be optimistic about its performance. A slightly smaller buoy, also designed by Orchid’s MD Paul Fairhurst, was deployed in Weymouth Bay this summer to gather meteorological data in order to provide sailors with vital weather updates.
This previous buoy hull was tested at sea off the coast of South West Wales and its performance and capability was measured over several months during the spring and summer of 2009. The buoys were subject to some particularly bad weather during this period, with the on-board wave sensor occasionally recording wave and swell conditions above 6m.
Despite the seas, post inspection of the hull and superstructure revealed no discernable damage or weakness and no evidence of failure or wear and tear of the component parts.
Fairhurst Marine Navigation buoys are rotationally moulded from high impact resistant polyethylene. The main floatation sections are secured around a galvanised mooring structure, which also houses the battery pack assembly. This keeps the centre of gravity as low as possible. With extra UV stability specified in the material, the main tower structure is twin skinned for optimum strength whilst also having a cavernous interior for specialist equipment.
The octagonal tower assembly allows for the fitting of numerous solar panels or buoy identification graphics. Safety is paramount, with handrails, anti-slip pads to stand on and permanently fixed ladders.
The modular nature of the component parts of Fairhurst Marine Navigation buoys makes it easy to request a particular bespoke concept design, with a range available from 1.25m diameter up to 3.6m in diameter.
Marine operations manager at the Met Office, Peter Fenna, explained that the Met Office has been involved with Orchid Plastics for the last five years on developing suitable buoy platforms. “These new modular hulls provide for the interchange of modules across a range of hull sizes, providing a great deal of flexibility for installing and operating both meteorological and oceanographic instrument packages”, he said.
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
