Hydratight Partners with the Professional Diving Academy

23 January 2012

Hydratight has partnered with a leading diver training school to provide practical training sessions in joint integrity.

In a bid to provide industrial divers with essential experience in subsea engineering, Hydratight and the Professional Diving Academy are collaborating to offer specialist subsea training. Unlike any courses previously seen, the tuition will combine underwater practical sessions with standard classroom teaching.

Jason Barnard, the global competency leader at Hydratight, said: "There simply hasn’t been anywhere for divers to learn how to operate specialist tools underwater from experts - and these aren’t skills that should be learned on the job."

Training for subsea bolting tools and jointing equipment has previously taken place on dry land or at disjointed intervals while a contract is in progress. The new tuition format developed by Hydratight and the Professional Diving Academy will help to improve the underwater safety of divers and their usage of bolting equipment.

Subsea equipment such as bolt tensioners and torque wrenches handle in a completely different manner when underwater. Not only does the weight of the equipment change, but also the forces employed, the diver's visibility and the time taken to complete a task. The inclusion of practical sessions during training courses will give divers a better understanding of bolting tools before they undertake joint integrity tasks.

This simulation of subsea conditions will also improve the safety of divers, providing them with adequate experience in bolting to help prevent any foreseeable errors occurring when underwater. Neil MacMillan, training manager at the Professional Diving Academy, said: "With several high-profile leaks from offshore oil and gas flow lines making international headlines recently, we feel that divers should have a mechanism that allows them to train on this highly specialist equipment and associated procedures in the proper working environment."

Hydratight and the Professional Diving School will begin to offer practical courses in early 2012. The training sessions will be run by experts from both organisations and will take place at the wet and dry training facilities in Dunoon, Scotland as well as other suitable facilities worldwide.

Hydratight's aim is to maximise safety and improve operational efficiency by supplying products and services that provide leak-free connections.

Their experience, comprehensive product range and on-site service teams support our global customers via a network of 35 strategic locations and a team of 1,000 people.