Harper UK – Significant time savings with innovative subsea equipment

Harper UK are a North East fabrication and rental based just north of Aberdeen on the A96. Within the 10-acre site, the company have fabrication facilities for all types of metal plate and pipe and a large storage and test area used to store the subsea rental fleet. This is also utilised by clients, storing large pieces of equipment. Investing in innovation is at the heart of Harper UK and is clear throughout their impressive product range.

Harper UK have the UK’s largest fleet of fully certified DNV 2.7-3 subsea baskets from small tooling baskets to recovery baskets to 16m in length. All the baskets have been designed with input from subsea customers and have safety benefits as well as robust structures without enclosed cavities. This means they can be used at any depth resulting in them being a great addition to any decommissioning project. Other items in the rental fleet include subsea steel weights, diver cages and subsea concrete mattress lifting frames. The rental fleet currently sits at around 300 assets.

In the subsea basket market, Harper UK were the only company in Europe that could supply directly for the project displayed in Image 3 “baskets on vessel.”

Harper UK’s commitment to innovation and helping cut costs for clients is shown with the 6 figure investments given to the patent pending portable power unit (PPU), used for vessel mobilisations and demobilisation. Images 1 & 3.

In one lift, this unit can equip a 14-man team for work within the space of an hour. This has transformed the conventional way of working which requires multiple loads, meaning more hours spent waiting.

Harper UK’s bespoke PPU has improved efficiencies to ensure the most effective vessel mobilisations and demobilisation for the future.

The unit offers significant savings on time and consists of a drop, plug and play system, housing welding machines, cutting equipment, a compressor, hand tools, spare and consumables; As well as remote E-stop that can also be linked to the vessel and moved around the deck to cut equipment power in the event of issues. The PPU is power by a self-contained diesel engine but in the event of failure can be powered by an external power source.

PPU Benefits

Drop, plug and play design
Ability to have 14 workers working with the space of an hour as opposed to being around 5 hours to set up 9 welding machines
Consists of 9 welding machines, compressor, burning and cutting equipment, hand tool, consumables and spares
Powered by an emission’s compliant diesel engine with the ability to switch to external power if required
Smoke and heat alarms inside the PPU
Remote e-stops can be moved to be used by the crew on deck