Tuesday 24th August 2004
The largest order to date of Groveley Detection's GDA gas and smoke detection aspirators has just been shipped for use on offshore platforms at Russia´s Sakhalin II project. The units have been specially-designed to withstand extreme temperatures of -40 to +40 degrees centigrade.
Nearly 50 of Groveley's units are to be installed on the platforms north of Japan through UK-based Detector Electronics for contractor Amec on a site which will include Russia´s first, and the world´s most powerful, plant to liquefy natural gas.
The aspirators will monitor air intakes to the platforms to protect personnel and plant. If any flammable gas, toxic gas or smoke is detected, the aspirators send a signal to the main fire and gas control panel which sounds an alarm and closes the air intakes to keep workers safe until the danger is over.
They were selected because they need very little maintenance - engineers do not want to service or recalibrate aspirators outdoors at -40 degrees C!
Because the temperatures are so extreme, Groveley built the units into specially insulated and heated enclosures and also fitted the duct sampling probes with heating components to avoid freezing while sampling air in the air intake ducts.
Groveley's managing director Robert Bennet said: "Our GDA aspirators are generally considered to be the best in the market and because they reduce the number of compression fittings, maintenance is significantly easier - just five minutes instead of the normal two hours - which is vital at the temperature range to be encountered on Sakhalin II."
The order has led to Groveley employing two additional production staff and it expects to win further orders for systems in similar challenging environments over the next few months.
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