MARL Technologies Inc. Designs New Revolutionary Drill (Canada)

Lack of seawater did not prevent an Edmonton firm from embracing the challenge of designing and building a revolutionary drill for work in the harsh environment of the ocean floor. The MARL Subsea drill will be required to work in depths as great as 3000 m below the ocean surface, and is set to leave Edmonton for final fittings and ocean testing Thursday.

Three years in the making, the MARL SubSea drill represents a new era in geotechnical and geological investigation on the ocean floor. Designed and built by MARL Technologies Inc. of Edmonton, AB, for US-based client Gregg Drilling and Testing of Signal Hill, CA, the drill will be used in the expanding field of ocean floor research.

The drill will be used to retrieve core samples that will then be analyzed by geologists, geotechnical and environmental engineers, and other scientists interested in the seabed.

At 300 times greater than atmospheric pressure, SubSea will have to withstand forces that would crush all but the rarest of submarines. The operator will control all drill operations from a ship overhead, which may be positioned as far as four kilometres from the drill.

The SubSea is leaving Edmonton Thursday, April 14 to be fitted with the subsea hydraulic power unit and telemetry system needed to operate the drill under water. Once these fittings are installed by a California robotics firm, the drill will return to Canada for underwater testing off the coast of British Columbia.

The design is unlike any existing subsea geotechnical drill, and promises to bring increased productivity to subsea exploration. The applications will be for geotechnical and environmental research, and for the rapidly growing field of subsea mining and mineral exploration.

A detailed video simulation of the MARL SubSea is available for viewing on YouTube, by entering the search term “MARL SubSea drill.”

About MARL Technologies Inc.

MARL Technologies Inc. was formed in 1977 to service and repair geotechnical and environmental mobile drilling rigs for sister company Mobile Augers and Research Ltd. The company was also active in rebuilding and repairing drills for the oil servicing industry until the late 1970s. The company added a modern machine shop in the late 1980’s, and has since built and designed leading-edge equipment for clients around the world. MARL Technologies’ equipment can be found around the world, and have drilled in some of the world’s harshest environments, including the Arctic, Antarctic, South America and Egypt. MARL Technologies’ founder and president, Ron Innes, began operations in 1959, and introduced dry auger drilling to western Canada.

(marketwire)

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Source: marketwire , April 13, 2011; Image: marltechnologies