KW Designed Solutions has designed and developed high pressure testing systems incorporating IBL tooling specifically for conducting Instrumented Buoyancy Loss (IBL) testing of subsea syntactic foam buoyancy products in line with API 17L (ISO 13628-11).
Our high pressure IBL testing system consists of a high pressure testing vessel (incorporating a test fixture to support the sample under test), a pressure-balanced load cell, a pressure transducer and a pressure control system complete with an HMI control panel; complete with an integrated PC based operator interface for logging data.
During a typical IBL test, the sample is subjected to a hyperbaric pressure equivalent to the rated depth of the buoyancy module for a period of time (hours/days). The amount of buoyancy (or uplift) is monitored throughout the duration of the test and the amount of buoyancy loss is plotted and extrapolated to End of Life (EOL).
Our IBL tooling connects to the underside of the pressure vessel closure and has a built-in device, specifically designed and engineered to prevent overloading the precision load cell during loading and unloading the test sample to and from the pressure vessel. Once loaded and the pressure chamber is filled with water, the locking mechanism is released, so that the load cell is under tension for the duration of the test.
Data acquisition via a PLC driven HMI operator interface, allows the operator to write test programs, monitor and log (pressure and force vs time), as well as log the temperature of the test media.
The user interface is designed to each of our customer’s specific requirements; ensuring that the required outputs are achieved via one system.