Grant provides boost for VIPERconnect

Developed by Viper Subsea, an engineering design company, the product is used on the seabed to enable high-pressure hydraulic and chemical hoses to be connected and disconnected with the aid of a remotely operated vehicle.

A team of four engineers has been working on the VIPERconnect prototype for the past year and the RDA’s grant of £134,000 means that it can now be taken forward to make it ready for commercial application.

The Grant for Research and Development investment will ensure that the product is successfully taken through the prototype build and rigorous testing programme necessary before it is ready for the marketplace.

Neil Douglas, managing director of Viper Subsea, said: ‘The challenges of putting something on the seabed in such vast water depths can be likened to putting equipment in space - it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to put it there and can cost even more to recover it if anything goes wrong. Product reliability is, therefore, a key design requirement, which needs to be proven through tests in a simulated subsea environment, so this investment is invaluable.’