UK-based subsea vehicle manufacturer Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD) has secured a new contract to deliver a subsea plow to a subsea cabling company.
SMD said Thursday that, as part of the contract, it would supply its MD3-XT plow, capable of trenching up to 3.3 meters with jetting, at depths of up to 1,600 meters. As for the client, SMD didn't say who it was, just describing it as "a leading global subsea cabling company."
The contract includes the installation and commissioning of the complete turnkey system including launch and recovery systems (LARS). The MD3‐XT plow is used in telecoms cable plowing, able to trench in most soils including clay and sands.
"[The plow's ] unique ‘multi-depth’ hinged chassis design allows for optimum burial performance which is variable up to 2.2m for shallower burial requirements or up to 3.3m, with an additional share boot fitted for deeper burial campaigns," the company said.
According to SMD, the new plow's umbilical system has been upgraded to a semi buoyant jetting cable meaning no buoys are required to be tied to the cable during plow deployment" making offshore operations safer, easier and faster."
Work is currently underway on the design and manufacture of the plow, which is due for completion in Autumn 2020. It is the third plow supplied by SMD for this company and will replace a former 12-year-old model.