Tue, 01/02/2018 - 11:12

The winners of the very first Oil & Gas Engineering Product of the Year awards have been identified as some of the best products introduced between January 2016 and July 2017. Trelleborg is the first company to win the Oil and Gas Engineering Product of the Year Gold Award for its newly developed Standardized Buoyancy Module. Jonathan Fox, Senior Product Development Engineer with Trelleborg’s offshore operation states: “We are honored to receive the Product of the Year Gold Award for our innovative Standardized Buoyancy Modules, which is specifically developed to reduce lead times for customers. It is especially gratifying knowing that the readers of Oil & Gas Engineering magazine voted our innovation as the best oil and gas solution submitted this year.” Trelleborg’s Standardized Buoyancy Module (SBM) is a modular redesign of the Distributed Buoyancy Module (DBM). The SBM allows smaller elements to be stacked together, enabling customized uplift requirements as specified for each project. The modular-buoyancy segments are designed to mechanically lock around the clamp, securely attaching the assembly to the desired location on the riser. The SBM can be adjusted to operate in seawater depths from surface to 2,500 meters by selecting the appropriate qualified buoyancy system. The design includes synthetic feet to the bottom of the finished assembly to prevent handling damage and reduce vessel installation time. While a dedication to excellence is something the gold, silver, and bronze winners have in common, their solutions reflect the wide scope of technologies and many critical functions pertaining to the oil and gas industry. The 2017 Product of the Year awards will be presented to the winners at the 2018 Engineering Awards in Manufacturing dinner on Monday, April 16, 2018.