SMD

Company Outline

Founded in 1971, SMD specialises in subsea solutions. It has over 50 years of experience in designing and manufacturing subsea equipment for the offshore wind, oil and gas, and telecommunications industries.

SMD’s product range for the offshore wind industry includes:

• cable tracker solutions, which can detect and provide live location data of buried power cables quickly and accurately from distances of up to 5 metres without the cables needing to be live, toned or magnetised
• remote operated vehicles (ROVs), for performing tasks through the offshore wind farm lifecycle, including initial site surveys, foundation and cable installation support, and maintenance and inspection activities
• trenching solutions, for the burial of array, export, and interconnector cables

Standard or fully custom solutions can be developed for specific projects and can operate in a wide range of conditions with bespoke tools. The hydraulic Atom, Quasar and Quantum ROV product ranges can operate in water depths up to 6,000 m. The Atom and Quantum models also exist in electric variants. SMD provides a range of post-delivery services including operators and spare parts supply, maintenance and upgrades to prolong the life of its products.

Industry track record

SMD’s offshore wind track record includes:

• burying over 90% of all simultaneously laid and buried fibre optic cables
• supporting 75% of all European offshore wind farm projects during the installation phase
• supporting projects in the US, including Vineyard and Ocean Wind
• completing deep burial campaigns in Taiwan for the Greater Changhua and Yunlin projects, and
• burying the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable between Korean mainland and Jeju Island.

In Japan, SMD’s Quasar product range is used to support submarine power cable projects. The company has over 40 years of experience working in Japan.