ROV Tools

MECHANICAL RESEARCH & DESIGN, INC. ROV TOOLS

Mechanical Research & Design, Inc. has excelled in the design, manufacture, and testing of ROV Tools, Underwater Remote Installation Tools, and Robotic tooling for decades. We provide standard and cutting-edge customized tooling for Underwater Construction, Offshore Subsea, Hydropower Repair, and other Marine Maintenance, Isolation, and Testing needs, leading the industry in rapid design to manufacturing turnaround. The Lab, our own in-house research, design, and validation proving grounds, is capable of simulating most diver and ROV installations, for real life flow, pressure, and functional testing, confirming solutions prior to shipping them to site.

Our ROV Tools are used in the isolation of Dam Intakes, Hydroelectric Dam Penstocks, Offshore Sea Chest Valve Maintenance, General Underwater Grouting Repairs, Marine Salvage & Repair, and Subsea Clamp and Pipe Connectors to name a few. Mechanical Research & Design, Inc.’s ROV Tools are trusted as single-point isolation products throughout the industry for primary gate and control valve repairs. We also provide a large variety of pipeline de-commissioning plugs and isolation barriers, configured to work with the many makes and models of ROVs, including Work Class ROVs.

Mechanical Research & Design, Inc. ROV Tools typically come with our Active SEALFAST® Elastomer designs, which are field-tested in both short and extreme long term installations. Most of our tools come with multiple seals for a variety of reasons, primarily to create leak-free pressure boundaries on aged, corroded, or marine growth environments. Many times, we employ the use of our durable SEALFAST® Mechanical Seals for maximum safety in isolation and a SEALFAST® Inflatable Seal for controlled pressure sealing in irregular geometries and for back-up. We have used our active sealing technologies, in combination with ROVs, all over and under the world in some of the most remote installations. Give our Underwater Engineers a call today and we will use our wealth of application experience and solutions database to provide an expedited solution!

Have Specific Requirements?

We specialize in custom solutions! Take a look at a few of our proven custom solutions or let us know your requirements. Our engineers and production staff are equipped to travel around the world at a moment’s notice to assist you with your needs!

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ROV PLUGS AND ISOLATION TOOLS

Mechanical Research & Design, Inc. has several Underwater in-line pipe and pipe inlet isolation & test tool options, adaptable for ROV installation and removal. Our ROV Tool lines include isolation plugs, barriers, neutrally-buoyant bulkheads, and other creative, custom designs for isolating: dam intake gate houses, penstock inlets, process water intakes for conventional and nuclear power plants, sea chests, subsea oil & gas pipeline de-commissioning and abandonment, and line stops and forms to support underwater grouting operations. We have variable designs to work with the different configurations and power limitations of the ROVs we work with, including standard and custom manipulator arrangements, conventional socket drives, hot-stab pneumatic and fluid actuation, onboard HPU’s and actuators (on tool options available), on-board orientation control/trim for pitch, roll, and yaw re-positioning, and adjustable buoyancy systems. We have tools with anodic and cathodic protection options for extended saltwater service. Our designs can be compatible with excessive marine growth and existing infrastructure corrosion as we design for maximum flexibility. Our tools come with our field-tested SEALFAST® Elastomers and have been used time and again for single isolation point specifications.

ROV CLAMPING SOLUTIONS

Mechanical Research & Design, Inc. builds several configurations of subsea pipeline repair clamps, subsea pipeline connectors, and subsea adaptors, for installation with divers and ROVs. We utilize our trusted Subsea SEALFAST® Elastomers in single seal, dual seal, and combination Mechanical and Inflatable Seal models. We use standard and proprietary restraint mechanisms that we use on many of our other pressure retaining isolation tools for maximum safety and reliability. Our products can be used on new-build subsea pipelines or for repairs on leaking or structurally defunct piping systems that are severely corroded. We can adapt to most connection styles or fittings on existing piping systems or no fitting, plain end pipe. We also design split systems for existing pipe connections that must be contained without break-down. We design simple diver and ROV-installed manual systems to those with hydraulic actuators and some with their own onboard HPUs, as needed. All tools can be provided with anodic or cathodic protection for long term installations as well as with buoyancy control systems where weight is unmanageable by ROV systems or inaccessible via direct overhead lifting methods.

MECHANICAL RESEARCH & DESIGN, INC. PRESSURE AND FUNCTIONAL TESTING VERIFICATION

The Lab, which includes our Underwater Construction and Subsea Validation testing facility, can help you “wet” run and fully pressure/load test products prior to installation. We have housed many of our client’s divers and ROVs for extended test runs, including under some simulated leakage and flow conditions. We have calibrated cutting edge test instrumentation and data collection onsite to reproduce some of the most challenging installation criteria imaginable. We pride ourselves on our Research & Design capabilities… call us today to see more of some of our elaborate test set-ups. If you want to see your product fully functionally tested with divers or ROVs under full design load pressure and flow conditions, give us a call today!