Page 125 - The ROV Manual - A User Guide for Remotely Operated Vehicles 2nd edition
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FIGURE 5.5
Syntactic foam filling mud tank voids on a 688I boat.
5.1 Vehicle design 113
(Courtesy Newport News Shipbuilding.)
FIGURE 5.6
Ceramic buoyancy spheres.
The drawback to solid syntactics is that they cannot be cast as very large parts. They are typi- cally 1 ft3 (28 cm3) or less due to the excessive heat or exothermic reaction generated during the curing process. Macrofoam, however, can be cast as very large parts; in fact, dihedrals and mud tanks with a cavity of 125 ft3 (3.54 m3) have been injected both in-plant and on-site at various ship- yards. Figure 5.5 shows the inside of a mud tank on a 688I boat where the lines feed through foam that fills the voids in the frame bays and provides 3 long tons of buoyancy to the aft area.
5.1.2.3 Ceramic spheres
With the assault from the ocean’s deepest trenches, ceramic spheres have been developed that can withstand the pressure of such locations. These spheres (Figure 5.6 sphere with logo) are typically
(Courtesy Deep Sea Power & Light.)
