SMD has recently delivered a Q-Trencher 400 telecoms vehicle to United Arab Emirates-based company E-Marine. The vehicle is to be installed on the company’s new build CS Maram; E-Marine’s dedicated submarine cable installation and maintenance vessel, which is currently undertaking dock trials ahead of its maiden, voyage later this year.
SMD supplied E-Marine with the full trenching system, including control system and gantry style telescopic launch and recovery system, and has worked closely with E-Marine to integrate the bespoke gantry system into the state-of-the-art cable ship. The Q-Trencher vehicle is rated to 2500m water depth and with high specification Curvetech thrusters, capable of operations up to 4.0knots.
The last cable maintenance machine of this size was delivered over a decade ago. The Q-Trencher 400 marks a new generation, equipped with SMD’s DVECS IITM advanced vehicle control technology. DVECS II features such as Time Trending, ‘Point to Fault’ and flexibility of the GUI & I/O benefit the pilot, reducing their workload such that operations are performed with increased accuracy and reliability, driving down task based operational costs.