Ocean Trenching Technologies is an Australian company providing installation and trenching of submarine and umbilical cables. Ocean Trenching operates crawler class ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) as part of its specialist marine services, each capable of 3.3m cable burial by either chain cutting, jetting or rock saw attachment.

Ocean Trenching recently contracted ReCoila to design, manufacture and deliver two unique hose reels that are hot-dip galvanised to ensure longevity in a marine environment. One of the reels is being put to use as a water hose storage reel, the other as a hydraulic hose umbilical reel that runs up to a hydraulic power unit and goes down subsea to link with the crawler class ROV; this reel holds six bundled 100m hoses.

“We enquired through a high-end industry connection for advice on who could best supply customised hydraulic hose reels, and they pointed us towards ReCoila,” said Ocean Trenching’s Tom Wilson.

“We are a global supplier ourselves and have demanding clients that require subsea installation of power cables, communications lines, pipelines, fibre optic cables and also drilling services.

“It is critical we avoid downtime, so the customised reels ReCoila designed for us were engineered for extensive duty cycles – regardless of whether demand is low or high.”

ReCoila custom designed and manufactured both these large reels at its head office and manufacturing plant in Sydney. For more information on custom made hose reels contact or read more about ReCoila’s capabilities here.

On the 18th October, a long-haul B-double freighter travelling to Fremantle caught fire. Thankfully, the driver escaped unharmed, and for the most part, so did the two hose reels on board that were destined for one of our clients at the Port of Broome. The entire truck was engulfed in flames and although the two reels were deemed unsalvageable, they stood firm, a testament to ReCoila’s rigid design and our engineering team’s quality craftsmanship.

The reels were custom designed and manufactured at our Sydney facility for a unique offshore fuelling application. To effectively dispense the large volumes of fuel required by the surrounding offshore gas operations, our client installed high flow bunker points on the Broome wharf so that large volumes of fuel could be delivered by specially designed and metered bunker trucks fitted with fuel hose reels. This fuelling system is necessary due to the massive tidal fluctuations in Broome rendering normal fuelling methods impractical.

This state of the art marine fuel facility is one of the most modern in Australia, and despite the fiery setback delaying delivery of the reels to our client, a fresh new set of hose reels were installed at the port within a couple of weeks.

Our custom manufacturing team designed and built two RF Series hose reels, each to hold 25m of 3″ ID hose to enable high-flow refuelling. Each reel has a 415V electric drive system with forward / reverse and speed controls.

The reels are constructed of heavy duty 3mm steel plate to ensure rigidity and strength, and mounted on heavy duty castors to enable the fuelling hoses to be easily moved from one fuelling point to the next.

Our technical team are experts at solving hose handling problems – if you need a hose reel for your job, chances are we can design one to suit. 

Australian reel designer and manufacturer ReCoila attributes its outstanding engineering skills as one of the major reasons it was headhunted to find a solution for a major global exploration company in the offshore energy sector. With rugged, unpredictable working conditions and corrosive operating environments amongst the deepest challenges in this sector, ReCoila, along with other subcontractors, came on board to provide specialised input.

As ReCoila carries more than 30 years proven experience supplying to all major Australian industries as well as export markets, it was seen as the right solution for a very difficult challenge, says Managing Director, Mr Michael Pawson.

“This was no ordinary assignment – the reel is transported onboard a ship that supplies offshore platforms with an anti-corrosion chemical which is used to flush the insides of the pipes on offshore rigs. We were approached for many reasons to assist in this project; arguably the main reason is that our expertise is long-time renowned. We design as well as construct, we are based in Australia, meaning we’re quick to respond with technical support and maintenance, and of course we focus strongly on the needs of the customer."

 “The engineering required was also fairly complicated and we are well equipped to provide this level of input. In addition, some components and fittings were purpose-built because they were not available off-the-shelf. Yet again, this is another example of our flexible and comprehensive engineering capabilities that saw us chosen for this project.”

Stainless steel was the material of choice. This was used for life cycle and corrosion control as the finished product will spend a lot of time offshore, immersed in salt-laden air and exposed to sea water.

ReCoila designed and manufactured the reel to a high life-cycle expectancy, and the project included a long list of safety factors such as complete guarding in and around the unit for safe operation and product protection.

Test procedures were in abundance before dispatch to the client. The reel formed part of a transportable pumping facility which was designed to withstand 2.4 Gs of force, and a test load of 10 tonne was applied to ensure structural integrity against the sudden, violent movement on board a sea-going vessel that can often be operating in 10 metre swells. Breakaways – where a sudden movement or ‘drift-off’ can jolt a hose to disconnect from the reel – minimise damage to the environment, to the reel and hose, and of course to personnel as well. The hose reel also had to be designed so that it could be dismantled within the frame of the pumping station and the components that were situated around it. Load tests on the gooseneck of the finished hose reel were equivalent to 900+ kg.

“At all times ReCoila worked in conjunction with other subcontractors to meet quality and expertise standards required by the end client,” said Mr Pawson. “The finished result was a stainless steel reel so well engineered and constructed for its demanding environment that I would expect it to outlive humanity.”