Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Syntactic Foam used on Schilling Robotic's Quest WROV

Brent,

There is a major difference in the density of material that is used in say a 3000 msw syntactic flotation to a 2000 ft rated syntactic such is on Karl's sub. A couple of good sources for info would be Flotation Technologies www.flotec.com and www.esyntactic.com.

If you are interested, a company not for from me, LBI in Groton, CT sells the material to make your own or they can make it for you.

Another good source would be Nuytco, they use formed syntactic blocks on their Deepworker submersibles.

Another material that I have seen on work ROV flotation is Rhino lining, I am not sure what kind of success they have had though, if anyone out there knows be sure and share.

As for as the ring thruster, I believe that it was originally developed by Harbor Branch and Schilling bought the rights to it. They still sell the electric Quest, but they are using the Sub-Atlantic thrusters in the design. Even though the two companies split up, I could be wrong, but it was a friendly split.

--
Craig Bussel
1660 Center Groton Road
Ledyard, CT 06339
860.961.8023

-------------- Original message --------------
From: Brent Hartwig <brenthartwig@hotmail.com>
Greetings Mates,Greetings Mates,

A good friend of mine used to work for Schilling Robotics as lead designer and assembly manager of
the Quest WROV unit. I was asking him questions about it's systems and syntactic foam parts
and learn some important things. The early prototypes of the Quest WROV used fiberglass
covered syntactic foam that was rigidly bolted to the ROV's framework. This turned out to be
bad for very deep dives, since the syntactic foam, fiberglass, and frame expanded and
contracted at different rates under great pressure and cold. Mostly resulting in the fiberglass
cracking and separating from the syntactic foam and stress on the bolted contact points. So for later models they no longer used fiberglass over the syntactic foam, but just a thick layer of gel coat or other more elastic coating. Then the syntactic foam was attached to the framework with urethane mounts, that are allot like motor mounts, to allow flexing between the different materials in the assembly.

Now keep in mind this was for a ROV rated for 3000 MSW and for some models 6500 MSW.
In the pictures in the link below you will also see that the Quest WROV has electric ring thrusters on it. My friend also was a large part of the ring thrusters design as well. An
interesting note is that there was a special ring thruster motor that served as the hydraulic
pump for the ROV's systems, like the manipulator arms, because of the great efficiency of that motors design.

Now that Schilling Robotics is no longer merged with Sub-Atlantic, perhaps they will now bring back the ring thruster as apart of there product line.

http://questrov.com/

I'm interested to know how well Karl Stanley's sub Idabel has held up in regards to it's
syntactic foam being covered in fiberglass and being attached directly to a steel hull that
regularly goes down to 2000 FSW.

Regards,
Brent Hartwig