Aquadyne AS — Subsea instrumentation & cable tracking, Norway

Aquadyne AS supplies, and increasingly manufactures, the instruments that tell an offshore crew where something is on the seabed. Since 1995 the company has been a Norwegian distributor for several of the recognised names in underwater acoustics and subsea positioning, and over the last few years it has moved from pure distribution into product development with its own cable tracking system.

Its own framing is simple: “We deliver instruments that help you find, track and position your subsea cables, pipelines and UXOs.” In practice that covers cable tracking, sub-bottom profiling, hydrophones and amplification, acoustic release transponders and modems, ice and wave profiling, subsea connectors, consulting, and rentals.

MagTrack is Aquadyne's own development, with its own site at magtrack.no. It is a subsea cable tracking system built around four small sensors, each integrating 3-axis magnetometers and inclinometers, feeding a subsea electronics module (SEM) that processes the data and sends both raw and processed streams to the surface vessel for integration with an ROV's survey system.

The sensors are titanium and the SEM is titanium and carbon fibre, which keeps the system light and compact enough to fit a wider range of ROVs and AUVs than bulkier trackers. It works on all active or tone-bearing cables; where a cable is not energised, Aquadyne supplies a Chroma-based tone generator built for field operations, optionally with a MagTrack transformer, and works with Megger GmbH for larger tone generators.

Three depth ratings are offered: the MagTrack 405 to 500 m, the MagTrack 415 to 1,500 m and the MagTrack 460 to 6,000 m. Aquadyne states a demo system is available — four sensors, 500 m depth rating.

Three use cases are described. Tracking: two pairs of sensors give centimetric cable positioning with instant quality control and better directional accuracy for the ROV pilot, with flexibility of flight height. Fault location: because most cable faults change the magnetic field from the fault onwards, the sensors can pinpoint the fault. Trenching: mounted on a trencher it positions the cable relative to the machine and determines burial depth and slope, which reduces the need for a separate ROV survey afterwards.

Innomar sub-bottom profilers — Aquadyne is the Norwegian distributor for all products from Innomar Technologie GmbH, described as the world market leader for parametric sub-bottom profilers.

Reson hydrophones and amplification — Aquadyne cites 40 years of experience in underwater acoustics and instrumentation and offers Reson hydrophones and amplifiers, with a TC4032 hydrophone available for rental.

Sonardyne release transponders and modems — supplied since the company's first day, with recent focus on lightweight release transponders and underwater modems. Rental stock listed includes two RT6-3000m release transponders and an iWand with RT6 command unit.

ASL ice and wave profilers — Aquadyne represents ASL Environmental Sciences in the Norwegian market, mainly for ice and wave profilers.

Subsea connectors — as both manufacturer and distributor, Aquadyne says it has worked with a wide range of subsea connectors and will help source a suitable solution.

Outlet — demo, used and refurbished products at discounted rates, checked and cleared by Aquadyne or the original manufacturers.

Aquadyne has offered consulting for more than 25 years, mainly on instrumentation for oil and gas, survey companies and aquaculture projects. It has become increasingly involved in cable projects and lists support to The Ocean Cleanup among its environmental work.

Jan-Erik Rygh — CEO and founder; founded the company in 1995 and works on product development and customer consulting. Irmgard Lintermann-Rygh — co-founder and operations, handling customers in Norwegian, German and English. Stein-Arild Nordrum — software development for new and existing products plus operational offshore support. Niklas Johansson — mechanical and electrical design and layout, and hardware builds. Nick Stevens — part-time mechanical and electrical design, alongside lecturing and a PhD at the University of Oslo.