ORE Catapult, EMEC, AFRC team up to refine marine components reliability

ORE Catapult, EMEC and AFRC are launching a joint project that aims to improve wave and tidal components reliability.

The goal of the project is to reduce the cost of marine energy components, while improving their reliability and performance capabilities.

EMEC will undertake a ‘forensic analysis’ of a variety of components that have failed to some degree across a range of wave and tidal energy devices, with AFRC providing support around component testing, ORE Catapult’s press release reads.

The insights gained through this project will be made available to support design choices around components and materials.

Jennifer Norris, EMEC’s Research Director, said: “The developers testing with us at EMEC collectively have the most experience in the world of the challenges, successes and failures of marine energy deployment and operation. By gathering failed components from a range of devices and looking at them in more detail at a variety of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) stages, this project will assist technology developers in the selection of appropriate components thereby improving efficiency and ultimately lowering the cost of energy.”

The Advanced Forming Research Center (AFRC) is a collaborative venture between the University of Strathclyde, Scottish Enterprise, the UK Government and engineering firms, whose key disciplines are material characterization, forging and forming, numerical simulation and engineering technology.

Image: EMEC