Rob Ferris, MD, Feritech Global
As a leader in geotechnical surveying, Feritech works for clients around the globe, with sales and rental customers in over 40 countries. To keep the company at the forefront of our industry, the company focusses on the design and manufacture of innovative products.
Innovation is right at the heart of our company, as I believe it needs to be for any ambitious business.
In April, we were proud that our new £3 million Innovation Centre near Falmouth was officially opened by HRH The Duke of Kent. The opening of the new centre represents the next step change for Feritech, as it gives us the capacity to gear up for accelerated growth.
Our future growth plans are based on the design and manufacture of a stream of innovative products. This will keep us competitive in our core markets and enable us to meet the engineering challenges of emerging and fast-growing sectors such as floating offshore wind.
This month, we have announced the launch of a new product which we believe will completely redefine the way geotechnical surveys are approached in future.
The Sealance brings the various functions required for geotechnical surveying together in one streamlined product. The Sealance is an adaptable survey device offering simultaneous deployment of up to three geotechnical tools as well as the Feritech heat flow system. Simultaneous deployment enables significant time savings, reducing project times.
Of course, reduced project time also leads to very significant cost savings. With the cost of hiring a vessel running anywhere up from £20k a day, saving several days on a project immediately delivers real cost reductions.
The Sealance will be a real gamechanger in specific areas of geotechnical surveying, such as for cable routes and pipelines.
This is truly disruptive technology and paves the way for our next exciting development, a range of autonomous products within our portfolio.
Work is well advanced, supported by Marine-i, to create the world’s first autonomous subsea vehicle specially designed for geotechnical survey work.
Part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Marine-i aims to help the marine tech sector in Cornwall grow through harnessing the full potential of research and innovation and we have been pleased to be able to latch into this valuable specialist support.
Globally, offshore assets require an increasing number of detailed subsea surveys, which often have to be carried out in extremely challenging sea conditions. This is particularly true for the growing floating offshore wind sector, where installation has to take place in very deep waters.
Using autonomous vessels to carry out geophysical survey work is an area that is already gaining traction. Our innovation will be an autonomous solution for geotechnical surveys. Such an autonomous vessel needs to be large in size to accommodate equipment for taking core samples of the seabed and for carrying out activities such as cone penetration testing and heat flow testing. This new solution will have a global impact in reducing the risks and costs associated with seabed surveys and we look forward to launching it in 2023.
In addition to designing and manufacturing entirely new products, we bring constant innovation to our existing equipment. For example, it is now more than 10 years since we introduced our first Vibrocorer. The Feritech Vibrocorer is the most robust, powerful and versatile vibrocore system on the market and is used by the largest global survey companies.
However, there is no room for complacency. Recently, we launched our next generation Vibrocorer.
The new model has several outstanding features, including increased vibratory power output, increased vibratory amplitude due to improved power to weight ratio and reduction in mobilisation time due to simplified frame structure.
Through our continued innovation, we are confident that the next generation Vibrocorer will continue to outperform any other system in its design and functionality.
Cornwall has a long history of innovation and we are proud to be based in the Duchy, helping to continue this tradition and demonstrate innovation and excellence in advanced engineering.
Innovation is our lifeblood. It is what keeps us ahead and enables us to compete successfully in international markets. There is no place for standing still. Constant innovation is absolutely vital for business success.