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Business advice aids deep drill development
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Manufacturing Advisory Service - West Midlands product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Nov 22, 2006
A specialist Derbyshire engineering company is developing a product that could soon see it helping the oil industry drill in the most remote and deepest places on the planet.
A specialist Derbyshire engineering company is developing a product that could soon see it helping the oil industry drill in the most remote and deepest places on the planet following support received from the Manufacturing Advisory Service in the East Midlands (MAS EM).
Rotaflow FV, based in Whaley Bridge in the High Peak, is being helped by the Government to pioneer a bearing that will help the oil companies to put their pipes on seabeds as deep at 5km - a pressure of around 1860bar.
MAS EM worked with the Managing Director and owner Ian Watt to help him to expand his markets.
Rotaflow are a specialist pipe fitting manufacturer which makes swivel joints, rotating joints and almost any kind of rotating bearing to order.
These swivel joints provide a robust bearing/seal combination that allows all kinds of pipe-work to pivot without leakage and they supply to almost all the major industries in the world, including coal, nuclear and steel, not to mention most blue chip manufacturers.
Watt explained: "We got the help from MAS EM following some work with the Business Advice Team in Derbyshire".
"MAS looked at our business and saw that we had potential to focus more on lucrative markets such as the oil and gas industry".
"Through their initial work, they placed us on a DTI programme that is helping us to develop a fitting that will help the oil and gas industry drill up to five kilometres deep".
Ray Mackinnon, a practitioner from the MAS EM team, said: "We saw the enormous potential for growth with Rotaflow and expect to see them winning new business in the foreseeable future and becoming a worldwide specialist in high pressure bearings".
Rotaflow was started 24 years ago by Ian Watt and has grown to a medium sised manufacturing business that employs nine people, including Watt's wife and son.
From a start of just six standard designs, the company now manufacturers to order and has made in the region of 3000 different designs of swivel.
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