Seanic Flex Joint Cleaning Tool Meets Increased Demand

The firm has more than doubled its annual number of flex joint inspections since 2013.

Oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico have been keeping Seanic’s Flex Joint Cleaning Tool (FJCT) extremely busy over the last year. Originally designed and developed by Seanic for a major oil company to clean the flexible elastomeric element of excessive marine growth. Removal of the marine growth is necessary to allow for optimal inspection of the molded elastomeric bearing giving Oil & Gas operators the ability to establish realistic life-cycle expectations for their in service SCR flexible joints. The versatile design of the FJCT allows for options to work with various inspection cameras, 3D modeling, lasers, temperature probes, & cleaning tools.

The first FJCT was originally produced in 2007 and as word spread of its capabilities, Seanic negotiated a licensing agreement with the patent holder which allowed for the development of a second unit for Seanic’s rental fleet. Since the development of the original concept, the FJCT has been used to inspect over 100 individual flex joints in the Gulf of Mexico. The FJCT is able to safely clean flex joints with diameters ranging from 4” to 24”. It serves as a stable platform to collect various types of data and imagery that can later be used to analyze the current condition of the flexible elastomeric element. Once the ROV delivers the tool to location the FJCT is operated by a Seanic technician, the tool is manipulated through the use of a joystick and a tooling computer with graphical user interface. The FJCT has been designed where it can easily be integrated with any number of industry recognized work-class ROVs.

Mike McGuyer, Offshore Project Mgr. for Seanic commented, “With the increase of FJCT rentals, we’ve been given a glimpse of how important this tool is to the inspection, maintenance, and repair programs (IMR). Interest in the beginning was high, but constrained because the first tool was proprietary to one major oil company. Now that we have a unit in our rental fleet, interest has jumped dramatically with operators throughout the GOM and West Africa.”