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Underwater technology and services
company SMD is celebrating a significant
milestone with the sale of its 100th plough.
The Plough M has been purchased by
Global Marine, a market leader in subsea
cable installation and maintenance, to
support its worldwide operations.
The sale is the latest in a series of
collaborations between the two
companies. Over the last 30 years, SMD
and Global Marine have partnered on 27
projects, and countless more equipment
upgrades and refurbishments, delivering
innovative technology that continues to
shape the future of offshore engineering.
Plough M has successfully completed sea
trials and has now been deployed on its
first commercial mission.
“Plough M represents the latest evolution
of our plough technology, blending
decades of experience with future-focused
solutions. It has been designed for
maximum plough stability with minimum
cable handling, delivering a true 2m burial
depth for ultimate cable protection.
Thanks to a low-friction share design, this
vehicle also consumes minimal fuel to
ensure efficient and economical
operations, said Adam Batsford, Key
Account Manager at SMD
The plough is designed to work in soft
mud with the minimum capacity of 5kPa.
It has a length of 9.1 m, a width of 5.1 m
and stands 4.4 m high. It has a depth
rating of up to 2000m.
With a chassis of high strength steel, it
weighs 22 tons in air or 19 tons
submerged white. It can be used to trench
cables with a maximum diameter of 160
mm and a maximum cable bend radius of
1.5 m. The maximum repeated distance is
380 mm.
Plough M
Its trenching system employs a pair of passive
narrow parallel sided shares with repeater burial
flaps to temporarily widen trench. It has two of
265kW water jets as required.
The plough has installed hydraulic power of 15KW
and a comprehensive instrumentation package,
including cameras, on panel and tilt units, lamps
and sonar.
It is installed from a 30 ton A-frame handling
system which lowers the plough on a single wire.
The winch is rated at 64 tons to render and 35 tons
to lift. There is an optional front jet tool for specific
soul conditions, and aggressive share tip for
operations in underground.
100TH PLOUGH