PES invited award-winning Scottish technology company PhotoSynergy Ltd (PSL) to give us an insight in to their suite of new products, produced in response to industry led requests to find practicable, cost-effective solutions in a variety of sectors where safety of life is paramount.
The company, in collaboration with a number of key technology partners, continues its focus on increased safety and productivity through innovative forms of illumination based broadly on its ground-breaking LIGHTPATH™ technology, a fibre lighting system offering an innovative technical solution.
In January this year, PSL and Livingston-based WFS Technologies launched the Seatooth LIGHTPATH™, an on-demand wireless ribbon lighting system designed to revolutionise diver safety and efficiency in remote subsea locations. The system is a combination of two advanced technologies – WFS’s Seatooth, a subsea wireless communication system that can download and log information gathered on subsea installations remotely and PSL’s LIGHTPATH™, a side-emitting flexible fibre that projects a continuous line of light that carries no electrical power – and works for both diver and ROV operators, working either near surface, or at depths of up to 3,000m.
The light is engaged automatically when the diver or the ROV comes within 5m of a structure, and provides instant illumination of subsea architecture and delineating features such as control valves, docking bays and even the outline of the structure itself against the natural darkness of the underwater environment. It switches off automatically when the diver or the ROV departs the scene, and has the ability to act as a proximity warning system when approaching installations, other divers, ROVs or danger areas. The unit has been successfully tested in the lab, and plans are in place to trial it in subsea conditions within the next few months.
