OneSubsea Acquires Viper’s V-LOCK Tech

Viper Innovations said it has taken the decision to sell its subsea hydraulic distribution portfolio of products, including the V-LOCK range of stabplates, to OneSubsea, a Schlumberger company.

The company said the decision was made as it plans to focus on its subsea electrical integrity products and assurance services.

Launched in 2011, V-LOCK offered performance significantly in excess of existing products with clamping and separation forces together with misalignment capability on make-up and a proprietary secondary release mechanism.

In 2015, a new version of V-LOCK was released said that it offers even greater cost and risk reduction benefits for first tier PCS and umbilical vendors, installers and operators.

The new model was designed such that all the coupler float requirements are built into the flying half of the stab plate, with couplers rigidly mounted within the fixed half of the stab plate. This mitigated assembly risk for the small-bore tubing installation on the Tree and Umbilical Termination Assembly (UTA). The need for long lengths of hydraulic tubing behind the fixed plate couplings in order to maintain coupler compliance was therefore no longer required.