Subsea Asset Location
The product SonarBell is outwardly an unprepossessing device whose elegant use of materials technology has the potential to revolutionise underwater subsea asset location and even potentially reduce Dolphin bi-catch.
To find equipment in anything but clear shallow water requires the use of sonar. Even with sonar visualising the water column or sea bed is difficult and the industrial users of the ocean use powered transponders to locate key equipment.
Such powered transponders are not only expensive but require regular routine maintenance depending on use and battery life – this limits their applicability. SonarBell is a passive reflector which acts much as a “cats-eye” does in the road taking in external energy and providing a strong reflection in return.
Looking like a bowling ball, it utilises the two materials of its shell and core create a constructive interference delivering a return signal significantly above that a hard reflecting sphere might otherwise deliver. It is omni-directional and although its signal is less than that of a powered transponder SonarBell’s are detectable by sonar in excess of 2 km away depending on frequency of operation.
