A UK south coast welding and fabrication firm has put cable lay vessel mobilization at the forefront of its offshore service offering.
Southampton based Vulcan Offshore Ltd. is a specialist in fabrication, welding and computer numerical control (CNC) machining for the marine and subsea industries. It principally works for cable lay companies that own or charter vessels for laying offshore wind farm or fibre optic cables for the telecommunications industry.
When a vessel, barge, or workboat prepares for an upcoming project, Vulcan’s clients typically have to modify and fit out the deck with winches, launch and recovery systems (LARs), cable engines, steps, ladders, and access platforms, etc. As the vessels perform different functions depending on the job, equipment needs to be fabricated or welded to the deck of the ship.
Chris Scrutton, managing director at Vulcan, said: “We offer a comprehensive welding and fabrication service, which can be delivered in our workshop, on- and offshore. It’s proved to be a differentiator that we’re ideally located [near the Southampton port] on the south coast and we have personnel skilled in MMA [manual metal arc], MIG [metal inert gas], and TIG [tungsten inert gas] welding; we also have welders who are CSWIP 3.2 certified.”
As Scrutton explained, this breadth of welding expertise is important because of the varied requirements within the industry. For example, MMA or MIG welding might be used onsite, while TIG is specifically related to stainless steel, most commonly in the Vulcan workshop. Non-destructive testing (NDT) via magnetic particle inspection (MPI) or dye penetration is also integral to many scopes of work.
He added: “The sector is apparently buoyant as we move through 2021 and we are keen to align ourselves with continued activity in the renewable energy sector, especially around wind farm installation. Meanwhile, as internet usage continues to grow, we also have a long-term role to play in fibre optic cable laying.”
By Jake Frith
