Fugro and 3D at Depth report a ‘world’s first,’ the manufacture of a subsea well part using Lidar data and 3D printing. During an Australian well abandonment project, it emerged that accurate data on the wellheads was no longer available. Fugro called on 3D at Depth to perform a subsea laser scan of the wells, in 110 meters of water. 3D@D’s subsea LiDAR SL 2 acquisition technology was used aboard two of Fugro’s FCV Work Class remotely operated vehicles (ROV). Physical measurements were also collected by the ROV using V-gauges and rulers and this data was cross-referenced with the 44 million point cloud data set.
The data was then used to 3D print a full scale model of a damaged well part to help design a ‘hot tap’ connector using in ABS thermoplastic material. Other parts were made on a CNC machine tool in Acetal and high-molecular-weight polyethylene. 3D@D MD Adam Lowry said, ‘Wide area point clouds avoid costly surprises which may only be discovered when the intervention vessel is on location.’ More from 3D at Depth.
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