M6 Subsea Training - Curso "In-Water Survey" - Inspección Subacuática de Buques a Flote , Mantenimiento y Reparaciones Básicas. Certificado homologado por Bureau veritas BV.
Fecha: 16 de octubre de 2016
Local: Instituto Zaporito - San Fernando / Cádiz.
Info: 605691240
info@m6subseatraining.com

Lo que está pasando en España, con relación al buceo profesional.

El objetivo de este blog es la información y la noticia, principalmente respecto a la tecnología o la formación de un grupo especial de trabajadores, los buceadores profesionales, que dedican sus vidas a los trabajos subacuáticos, desde la construcción civil a los trabajos offshore. La idea es comentar las posibles oportunidades o historias que puedan de un modo u otro fomentar el crecimiento técnico y/o la formación profesional. No es nuestra intención menospreciar el trabajo ajeno o realizar acusaciones que puedan afectar la imagen o el trabajo realizado por otras entidades.

El pasado martes 21 ha fallecido un buceador profesional, (uno más), en una central térmica en Los Barrios (Cádiz). El último año el número de compañeros muertos ha sido demasiado para un colectivo tan pequeño como es él del buceo profesional. Esto nos lleva a plantear preguntas que exigen respuestas urgentes, así como acciones inmediatas para salvaguardar la salud y la integridad de todos los buceadores profesionales. Pero,¿cuál es el fallo? ¿dónde están las equivocaciones?

Normalmente, en casos como estos, acusamos las empresas en cuestión y los métodos no profesionales que adoptan durante las operaciones.

Os presentaré algunos ejemplos que me han sucedido en los últimos dos meses. Trabajo en una empresa de buceo profesional, que es una más, con sus errores y aciertos en algunas cuestiones operativas.

Una de las cuestiones un poco complicada para mi con relación a algunos buceadores, principalmente los más experimentados, surge cuando les digo que necesitan utilizar el casco de buceo para limpiar los costados o el fondo plano con las máquinas hidráulicas. Prefieren utilizar el equipo SCUBA. Los argumentos son siempre los mismos como: El casco no es confortable; me duele el cuello; el umbilical es un incordio; con el SCUBA, trabajo más rápido, etc.

En estos casos, mi única opción es sustituir el casco por una band mask y sé que algunos se van al agua, pero no sin protestar. Lo interesante es que los más jóvenes no protestan tanto. Otro ejemplo, que observo, es en lo que se refiere a los buceadores de practicas o recién formados.

Es normal y habitual, en España, que empresas y escuelas de formación envíen a jóvenes a realizar las horas de "prácticas" a las compañías de buceo profesional. En los dos últimos meses he recibido una gran cantidad de ellos para que acompañen las operaciones de buceo. Normalmente, cuando recibo a un joven de práctica, realizo las preguntas de "praxis", cómo y dónde ha recibido la formación, la cantidad aproximada de horas de buceo, los equipos utilizados durante el curso, así como la formación técnica. He trabajado en muchos sectores del buceo profesional y actualmente he vuelto a realizar mantenimiento y reparaciones de buques y como podéis imaginar es muy complicado enviar un buceador aún en proceso de formación bajo un buque de 36 0 40 m de manga con una eslora de mas de 200m. Por tanto es normal que el candidato trabaje en cubierta y que después de conocer un poco mejor el perfil del individuo, sus habilidades y capacidades, le envíe con otro buceador más experimentado a sacar fotos o a limpiar las rejillas del "sea chester".

A medida que el candidato adquiera experiencia se puede aumentar el grado de dificultad y incluso, como ya ha pasado anteriormente, se incorpora a la plantilla de la empresa. Durante mis indagaciones pregunto cuánto tiempo estuvieron en la escuela de buceo y me contestan algunos que 9 meses, otros dos años en total y en las escuelas privadas de dos a tres meses. Pero, para mi sorpresa cuando les pregunto sobre cuantas veces han utilizado un casco de buceo durante las clases prácticas, las respuestas son una o dos veces. Hubo un buceador que me a dicho que apenas lo han visto en clase "teórica", pero que siempre buceaban con SCUBA.

Los ejemplos que he mencionado son una realidad casi a diario que suceden en mi empresa y seguramente en muchas otras más.

As veces hablo con empresarios del sector y algunos son tajantes a la hora de denunciar como se realizan las licitaciones en la mayoría de las obras. Gana el menor precio o el mayor enchufe o ambas cosas. Si la empresa "X" presupuesta un equipo de cinco buceadores utilizando cascos de buceo, compresores (alta y baja) de grandes prestaciones, cuadro de gases comunicaciones, umbilicales,etc., y la empresa "Z" oferta cuatro buceadores utilizando SCUBA y realizando la recarga de las botellas en Decathlon por un euro, me parece evidente que la diferencia presupuestaria será enorme. Hacen años.

Hace muchos años, trabajé en una empresa en la que los buceadores, al salir del agua reclamaban que les era muy difícil respirar a cierta profundidad. Después de inspeccionar el compresor y comprobar el caudal y la presión máxima del compresor, constaté que la profundidad máxima a la que se podría utilizar el compresor para que respirasen dos buceadores era de alrededor de los 10m y ellos estaban trabajando a quince metros. Cuando hablé con el supervisor y el dueño de la empresa sobre el tema, les enseñé los cálculos necesarios para la utilización del compresor adecuado para esa profundidad de trabajo y para dos buceadores, su respuesta fue: “Siempre hemos utilizado el compresor y nunca hemos tenido ningún problema”. Menos mal que el supervisor me había escuchado y cambio el sistema, de modo que los buceadores pararon de reclamar de la falta de aire. Menos suerte ha tenido un compañero de Málaga que al constatar que el compresor no daba el caudal suficiente a 20m de profundidad, habló con el propietario, le enseñó los mismos cálculos que comprobaban que el compresor no era adecuado para tal profundidad, este le respondió que ¿quién era él para enseñarle sobre cuál es el equipo más o menos adecuado en su empresa de buceo?. Este compañero inmediatamente se marchó de la empresa.

Con todo este panorama, cuando buscamos a los culpables por los accidentes fatales del último año en España, creo que que deberíamos pensar desde una perspectiva más amplia, global, y enfocar distintos problemas, sin eximirnos del mea culpa, nuestra propria culpabilidad en todo este "caos" político, administrativo, educacional y personal.

Seamos conscientes de los problemas que nos afectan. El libro El arte de la guerra habla de dividir el enemigo. La división debilita aumentando las posibilidades de la victoria. Si nosotros, el colectivo de buceadores profesionales nos dividimos en facciones, sindicatos, distintos ideales, nunca llegará a un denominador común y consecuentemente nunca tendremos las condiciones adecuadas.  

Old diving stories....

Diving Bell Smashes the bottom

In 1976 I signed a contract with COMEX HOULDER to be a sat diver on the jet barge CREEK, which belonged to the Santa Fe Company.

The work season started in May and until October the barge worked in the North Sea to dig many miles of pipelines.

I had started my offshore freelance diver career one year earlier and had  already worked with British (and Scottish) on the L.B.27, but now I was a bit more anxious because I was going to make a saturation with them and therefore was afraid to not always understand their terrific accent.

The first days in sat were very difficult and more than once I had to ask my mates to write on a piece of paper what they wanted to tell me.

But fortunately for me it didn’t take too long to get used to their Donald Duck voices.

At the same time, I suppose that my English was more pure than theirs, because more than once, the chamber operator came to me to ask what the other guys in the chamber wanted.

Since the beginning of the working season, I was making a team with Tiny Gulliver.

He was at least twice as strong as me and the pair of us looked a bit like Stan Laurel (me) and Oliver Hardy (him).Nevertheless, we made a perfect team and I liked working with him.

As on every jet barge, our main task was to install the huge claw over the pipe and then make an inspection dive of the trench and the sledge about every six hours.

In fact a relatively well paid, easy job with a lot of boring moments between each dives.

The only problem when you work on a jet barge is, if we except the dive made to install the claw, that most of the time, the inspection dives are made with zero visibility.

This is due to the fact that the water pumps and the airlifts of the jet machine are stopped at the very last moment, just a few seconds before the diver leaves the bell.

On the 19 of august 1976 the sea was really bad on Ninian field but nevertheless the barge continued to pull the jet sledge over the pipe and it was time for Tiny and me to dive for the inspection of the trench.

It was my turn to dive so Tiny went into the bell to make the checklist.

Once completed I joined him in the bell and we were ready to be send down.

During the translation of the bell to the stern of the barge we could see through the portholes that the sea was quite raging and we could feel a big swell.

The entry in the water was a bit rough but after a few meters the bell stabilised and we could now be lowered to the bottom without being shaken like a plum – tree.

As usual the bellman announced the depths every 10 meters.

“60 meters»

“90 meters»

“120 meters»

“145 meters»

“145 meters” replied the supervisor, “we lower the bell slowly now.”

At 150 meters the bellman announced “door open” and as usual, we decided to lower the bell 3 to 4 meters more so as to be closer to the seabed.

We were now stabilized at 154 m and the supervisor told me that I could get equipped.

Tiny fixed the bail out, the hot water and finally the KMB 16 and I was now ready to go.

Me: Surface how do you read me?

Surf: Loud and clear Francis. Ok everything is stopped, you can leave the bell.

Me: Ok ready to leave the bell.

So I straightened my arms on the hub to ease the passage of the 1er stage reducer and gently let myself go through it, when suddenly Baouhhmm !!!  The bell smashed onto the bottom and I was there, standing on the seabed in the middle of the bell.

-        Me: Surface up at the bell quickly.

-        Surf: say again.

-        Me: Up Up at the bell quickly we hit the bottom.

-        Surf: Roger, up at the bell.

Baouhhmm !!!, with the swell, the bell hit the bottom again with violence. I was still in the middle of the hub, trying to find a grip somewhere to avoid passing under the bell what would probably have been fatal for me.

Luckily for me, Tiny also had understood what was happening and this time before the bell hit the bottom for the third time he grasped the top of my helmet and pulled me completely out of the water.

Wouah! My neck I screamed but at least I was now save in the bell.

The bell smashed the bottom once more, but then we heard the supervisor shout at us that he was coming up at the bell for 5 meters.

When everything was stabilised, the supervisor asked me if I was OK and able to continue the dive or preferred to abort it.

Although this dive could have been my last one if I had started to dive a few seconds earlier I preferred to continue immediately before my mind realised the consequences of the situation.

So again, I slipped in the water and search for the guide line which was to bring me to the sledge.

In fact what had happened? It seems that the pneumo installed on the jet was a bit faulty and therefore had given a false depth reading.

But the other cause of the near miss was that we dived with a very big swell, which made the bell have vertical amplitude of about 5 meters.

Luckily for us the ballast weight release system of the bell had been modified some time before and the fact that we hit the bottom several time didn’t drop them off accidentally as it happened some years before to another stranded bell.

Conclusion:

If you have to make a bell (or wet bell) dive in zero visibility always measure the distance between the hub and the seabed with a measuring tape or rope before leaving it to be sure that the bell is not too close of the bottom.

Source: cdiver.net

Curso IMCA Trainee Air Diving Supervisor

El próximo 24 de noviembre será realizado en Algeciras (Cádiz) el curso IMCA Trainee Air Diving Supervisor. El curso tendrá una duración de cinco días donde será aplicados los fundamentos de física y fisiología del buceo, liderazgo, control, legislación (mar del norte y sector noruego) y responsabilidades del supervisor. El curso será impartido en Inglés. Para mayores informaciones entre en contacto con M6 subsea Training (+34 605694012). 

IROV (Italia) y M6 Subsea Training cierran un acuerdo para cursos ROV Pilot/Technicians para 2015.

M6 Subsea Training y IROV, representada por Mauro Stasi, cerraran un acuerdo para la realización de cursos ROV Pilot/Technicians para el 2015. Los cursos serán realizados en Cádiz y prometen muchas novedades ya que IROV es una de las mayores empresas Italianas del sector. La empresa IROV ha sido fundamental en las operaciones del Costa Concordia con más de cincuenta mil horas de operaciones. actualmente la empresa opera en diversos proyectos en todo el mundo. En breve estarán abiertas las inscripciones para los cursos en 2015 con novedades para el sector.

N-Sea Puts TUP Diving System to Work

Posted on Sep 30th, 2014 with tags europe, N-Sea, News by topic, North Sea, Scope, Subsea, TUP Diving System.

N-Sea, the Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) specialist, has recently completed its inaugural diving scope with the innovative TUP Diving System® (Transfer Under Pressure).

The diving scope involved X-mas tree assistance with the deployment of the TUP Diving System® for client ONE (Oranje-Nassau Energie) on its project, “L6 Diving Services” at the location L6D in the North Sea.

For this project, N-Sea stationed the closed bell system on the Jack-Up rig the “Paragon C46-1” between July and September. The project team included a 24/7 operations crew at the site of this challenging scope, during which the system proved its full potential.

The TUP Diving System® has been designed and built in-house by N-Sea, and comprises a 3 man bell, launch and recovery system, triple lock decompression chamber, gas diver control (Air/Trimix/Nitrox) and hyperbaric rescue craft. During the last year the pioneering system has undergone a complete refit and has been converted to allow it to be used as a mobile system, deployable from most DPII support vessels and platforms.

Gerard Keser, CEO of N-Sea, said: “The TUP Diving System® enables N-Sea to offer a safe, complete and very cost effective solution to customers. The system is safe, because there is no surface decompression interval and the system allows protected transfer through the splash zone. It’s an enhanced proven solution that increases the workable bottom time.”

Theo Bergers, COO of ONE added that “key factors for choosing the TUP Diving System® were safety and workability.”

IMCA Updates Saturation (Bell) Diving Systems Inspection Guide

Posted on Sep 16th, 2014 with tags design, diving equipment, europe, Imca, Inspection Guidance, Jane Bugler, News by topic, Note, Revision,Subsea, Systems, Update.

The International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA) Diving Equipment Systems Inspection Guidance Note (DESIGN) for Saturation (Bell) Diving Systems (IMCA D 024) has now been revised and updated to incorporate equipment improvements and changed operating practices since its first publication in 2001 as well as expanding the sections for the hyperbaric rescue unit, its launch system and its interfaces with the saturation diving system.

“There is also a new section for the life support package (LSP),” explains IMCA’s Technical Director, Jane Bugler. “The format has also been changed slightly to improve ease of use and provide better referencing. It is intended that this document should be used in conjunction with IMCA D 018 – Code of practice on the initial and periodic examination, testing and certification of diving plant and equipment.”

Background

DESIGN for Saturation (Bell) Diving Systems has a long and proud history. In the early 1980s, in order to give some guidance to the offshore industry, IMCA’s predecessor the Association of Offshore Diving Contractors (AODC) started to produce a number of reference documents, standards and guidance notes. This process continued through the 1980s. It was clear, however, that there was still considerable confusion with some diving systems being ‘audited’ several times a year by different clients, each of whose representatives had slightly different interpretations as to what was required.

AODC published document reference AODC 052 – Diving Equipment Systems Inspection Guidance Note (DESIGN) – in February 1989 that sought to clarify any interpretations necessary and to identify a common standard that could be applied by all parties during an inspection. It was intended for use offshore in the UK sector of the North Sea but in the absence of other guidance it became a standard reference in many parts of the world, particularly where there were no specific national regulations.

Subsequently AODC expanded and revised the document which was re-issued as Rev. 1 in February 1995. This more comprehensive document covered both air and saturation diving systems. It was still based on the requirements of the UK sector of the North Sea but was adopted by many clients and diving contractors world-wide. Some users, however, found it to be complex and difficult to use.

With the increasingly international nature of the offshore diving industry, IMCA revised AODC 052 Rev. 1 in order to simplify it, clarify any anomalies which had shown up and adapt it for international use, rather than restrict it to North Sea use. It was also decided to split it into separate documents, one for surface diving (IMCA D 023 published 2000) and the other for saturation diving (IMCA D 024 published 2001).

Current update

“Subsequently documents were issued in 2006 for surface supplied mixed gas diving (IMCA D 037) and mobile/portable surface supplied diving (IMCA D 040),” explains Jane Bugler. “IMCA D 024 for saturation diving systems was revised and updated to Rev. 1 in 2013 and to Rev. 2 in 2014. At that time we recognised that it was no longer adequate to simply have a small section in this document to cover hyperbaric evacuation.

“The latest revision therefore includes updated sections for the hyperbaric rescue unit, its launch system and its interfaces with the saturation diving system as well as the life support package (LSP).

“It was recognised that any hyperbaric reception facility (HRF) forming part of the hyperbaric evacuation system (HES) would be likely to be in a different physical location to the equipment covered by IMCA D 024 and would thus need a separate DESIGN document (IMCA D 053).”

Press Release, September 16, 2014