21 December 2009
Record sales for Vitrovex glass
Vitrovex glass, from the Schott company in Jena, Germany, has been respected for its quality by ocean scientists and engineers for many years. The distribution outlet for Vitrovex is via Nautilus Marine Service (NMS) in Bremen and RS Aqua acts as the UK and Ireland outlet on their behalf. Sales of Vitrovex glass products have always been steady but 2009 has witnessed a significant surge in order levels from both new and returning customers.
Most ocean equipment users will be familiar with the 13” and 17” spheres in their orange hard hat sets which provide deep ocean buoyancy for mooring strings and landers. However, although sales of glass buoyancy have increased this last year (clients such as NOC, MacArtney UK Ltd and SAMS) it is the “housing” application sector that has seen the greatest increase. New clients such as Sonardyne International Ltd, have joined returning users like Guralp Systems Ltd and the Proudman Ocean Laboratory to considerably increase turnover. Typical “housing” usage will combine electrical, pressure and vacuum port feed-throughs to house sensing, monitoring and power modules.
NMS is the only glass manufacturer offering 9,000m and 12,000m rated 17” housings. A couple of years ago, scientists at Aberdeen University’s “OceanLab” successfully took Vitrovex spheres down to 10,500m during their HADEEP project.
Our image shows a 17” Vitrovex glass housing in a cutaway hard hat experiencing seasonal conditions.
For further details of the Vitrovex range of glass products, including additional images and a brochure pdf, click here or contact product specialist Roger Scrivens at r.scrivens@rsaqua.co.uk for a quotation.
