STR Subsea
Subsea equipment specialist that rents, sells, and supports tools and systems for offshore survey and construction work.
STR describes itself as a global expert in subsea equipment, supplying, renting, engineering and supporting technology used below the waterline. Its catalogue is organised around geophysical survey equipment, inspection equipment, positioning equipment, ROV peripherals, subsea power solutions, underwater camera systems and winches, and the same categories, together with oceanographic equipment, ROV tools and acquisition software, are available through its rental fleet. The company frames its position as thinking beyond rental: rather than simply hiring out equipment, its stated mission is to give customers a competitive edge through integrated, forward-thinking technology and engineering solutions, with flexible and dedicated support running from project planning through to project completion. Three industries are named as the focus of that work. Offshore renewables is described as a transformational energy market, oil and gas is covered from discovery through to recovery, and marine science work is framed around the Blue Economy and the accurate, efficient capture of critical marine data and intelligence. Because off-the-shelf equipment does not always meet the requirements of subsea exploration, STR runs a dedicated Innovation and Technology Centre with an engineering team focused on developing in-house products. Two of these are named. OpTow is a complete winch and cable package engineered for Remotely Operated Tow Vehicle operations, combining a hybrid fibre and electrical umbilical, a low-loss fibre slipring, remote and local joystick control and a Remote Operator Centre interface, so that high bandwidth communications can support advanced survey sensors and video imaging systems used for seabed mapping and inspection. The SeaSpyder Nano is a drop camera, part of a family of field proven subsea camera systems manufactured for the marine survey and environmental communities. The service side is broad. Cable spooling covers accurate spooling of a wide range of subsea cables onto multiple winch and drum configurations, with cable testing, trial spooling and termination available at the Innovation Centre in Great Yarmouth. Calibration is offered as an approved third-party service for manufacturers including Valeport, Sonardyne and Tritech, and spans conductivity, gyrocompass, pressure, sound velocity and temperature calibration as well as general hydrographic and oceanographic sensor calibration. Cable products include subsea cable supply, fibre optic cable solutions, custom cable assemblies, multi-way breakout assemblies, moulding and overmoulding onto Neoprene, Polyurethane and Polyethylene, sensor encapsulation, junction box potting, cable inspection, repair and maintenance, and OEM subsea connectors and accessories. Custom engineering work covers cable and fibre optic telemetry systems, cathodic protection inspection solutions, digital video recording systems, electric survey winches, flooded member detection systems, side scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler integration, hosted and towed survey platforms, subsea power systems and remote displays, subsea lasers, subsea lighting and underwater drop camera systems. Fibre optic services, offshore personnel supply, tooling inspection, collaborations with SubC Imaging, Intamo WaveStream and iMPAQ Technologies, and the STR Academy complete the picture.