Early this year our Victorian Sales Office was contacted by BAE Systems to manufacture them a semi-permanent oil spill containment boom for a major upcoming project.

The brief given to Global Spill Control was; “The boom must be an impervious, non-absorbent boom for semi-permanent, long term  deployment of no less than two years, for all water and weather conditions including what could be rough tides and water as the project would be exposed to the elements.” The boom also had to have excellent abrasion resistance, have UV resistance, and be easy to deploy.

After multiple correspondences, it was decided that 700 meters of our “Cube Boom” with a 2,380gsm skirt material would be supplied.

This type of boom was chosen for many reasons, some of these reasons include;

  •         Foam filled, moulded floats able to support the heavy duty ballast weighted skirt.
  •         It was able to be manufactured locally in our factory in Airport West in easy-to-handle 15 meter lengths, allowing for a high level of quality control.
  •         The Cube Boom is UV and oil resistant with buoyancy to weight ratio of 4:1.
  •         The floats are a highly visible orange colour so any nearby marine traffic are aware of its position.
  •         Sections have anchor points at both ends and extruded aluminium ASTM connections to allow for easy connection of boom sections.
  •         Floats are equipped with replaceable rubber “wear strips” to protect them from abrasion.

As the boom was nearing completion, it was required that it be connected fixed to pylons at each end using Global Tidal Compensator Slides, fitted with a polyethylene float. These are normally attached to the pylons in-line with the boom.

However, in this situation it was not possible due to the strong tidal changes that would be hitting the boom, the immense length of 700 meters of boom, and the angles that the tides would cause, the current configuration would not be adequate to hold the boom without damage.

Our in-house engineers were able to design, manufacture and test a new tidal compensating system that was hinged and could move easily in conjunction with the boom, alleviating any pressure points.

The end result was a satisfied customer, and just another example of Global Spill Control’s ability to work with our customers, manufacturing and flexibility to solve requirements and any arising challenges quickly and efficiently.