World-class standards and local service: that is Hydratight's promise to clients.

For over 30 years, Hydratight has provided world-class bolted joint solutions, machining services and innovative Morgrip mechanical weldless connectors to the power, oil and gas, industrial and aerospace industries.

Whether a client's site is in England, Norway, America or Singapore, above ground or under the sea, our 1,200 highly-skilled staff, based at Hydratight's 35, strategically-positioned offices around the globe, will be capable of delivering a high-quality, high-speed solution.

Though Hydratight is a relatively small cog in the overall subsea industry, it is widely recognised as an extremely important one - indeed, Hydratight is the market leader in its field by a huge margin, with the most innovative equipment and service.

Subsea fields are becoming more and more essential to national economies. The North Sea is arguably more important to the UK economy and way of life today than it was 30 years ago; keeping the flow constant is more crucial than when the fields first came online.

To ensure continuity and longevity of supply, more and more custom-made solutions are becoming essential, and Hydratight designers continually develop more efficient solutions to industry needs. The large jump in demand for our services in the past two years is a direct result of meeting essential needs with top-class responses.

Part of the company's expertise comes from designing and manufacturing world-beating equipment, creating bespoke solutions to meet customer's requirements, offering specialist training to improve client safety, developing software that makes critical calculations easy to get right, and providing on-site machining and joint-integrity services. Our engineering services include torque and tension bolting equipment, portable machining equipment, in-situ heat treatment, valve testing and leak sealing

A pool of over 800 highly-experienced, world-class technicians then puts these technologies to practical use.

Hydratight is totally committed to safety and quality, accuracy and durability. All the company's products and services are designed, manufactured and used within internationally-recognised quality, environmental and health and safety management criteria. Safety is a major part of the Hydratight culture: good isn't good enough. We strive for excellence wherever we are in the world.

Expertise in action

Our expertise drives the provision of the safest, most secure connections possible for critical components in extreme locations, increasingly in subsea applications. Two of the company's most recent subsea repair jobs, for example, have included fixing a new section of pipe in a vital 30in, 210bar line 200 metres under the North Sea off Norway, and replacing 200ft of an old line 35 metres down on the sea bed off the Suffolk coast.

Strong currents, difficult conditions and pipes over 40 years' old were among the obstacles encountered by divers during repairs to the latter, a small but vital pipeline off Lowestoft.

A major field, 45 miles out into the North Sea, channels gas produced by four separate platforms through a 30in pipe over 35m down on the seabed. Though the main gas line was unaffected, the 3½in mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) line alongside it was fractured by trawler lines. Since MEG injected into the piped gas prevents the build-up of hydrates that clog valves at the onshore refinery, restoring the platform's return MEG supply was an urgent matter if far greater expense was to be avoided.

A three-week survey of the 45-mile line found the damage, which Hydratight was then called in to repair, replacing 61m of damaged pipe over another three weeks.

This was Hydratight's third repair over the years to fairly deep lines in the middle of a busy fishing area, easy prey for trawler lines. Not that familiarity made the work routine: the same size 3½in pipework was unavailable, so 4in pipe had to be used with suitable reducers. The pipe was also 35m down, in strong tidal currents that meant divers only had a two hour window to work every six hours. A team of 20 divers, two at a time, worked round the clock in shifts for three weeks. Remote cameras had to be used to survey the site and do some of the dredging so access was easier.

Product innovation

But not all Hydratight jobs are so unusual. To help meet the demands of our clients' less extreme subsea projects, in the past year alone Hydratight engineers have moved with a changing market and new standards and have developed innovative products for the subsea sector, including TensionMax - the most complete range of multi-capable tensioners available, and the ultra-light, ultra-portable QuickFace - a new hand-powered refacing tool.

The TensionMax range - the AquaMax subsea tensioner and its parallel topside tool, HydraMax, is the first specifically designed to generate the increased loads needed to tension Vector SPO Compact flanges, while retaining the capability and flexibility to tension Taperlok and all standard ANSI, API and MSS types.

The compact flange is becoming a new standard for the subsea industry because of its smaller sizes, lower weight and guaranteed seal integrity. But the system's high load requirements have caused problems for many bolt-tensioning tools designed for traditional ANSI sizes and loads.

AquaMax offers subsea engineers a one-stop shop for all tensioning needs, eliminating the requirement for a variety of different tools - with the added benefit of reducing risk and increasing safety by using one product range with one set of operating procedures.

The complete AquaMax range covers 19 diameter-specific tools varying from CJ01 (¾in, M20) to CJ19 (4in, M100), but a core range of eight tools, available from stock, covers the major bolt sizes from 7/8in (M22) to 3½in (M90). The tools are versatile: the core sizes can usually also tension 80 per cent of the next size down - in other words a CJ03 will cover all standard flanges with one inch bolts and eight out of ten standard flanges using 7/8in bolts.

AquaMax's parallel HydraMax range caters for the same wide range of compact and standard flange types, but on topside-assembled flanges.

Hydratight has also recently launched a remarkable new refacing tool for hard to reach pipe flanges.

The ultra-light, ultra-portable QuickFace is a new hand-powered refacing tool that retains the accuracy and performance of the bigger air- and electrically-powered cousins in Hydratight's extensive range.

Supremely portable, QuickFace turns a two-man operation with heavy equipment, compressors or portable generators into a one-man job that can be undertaken anywhere a technician can physically reach - whether at the top of a refinery installation, miles from the nearest power supply, or even under water...

The tool weighs only 6.8kg (15lb), and in its storage case with interchangeable collets and lead screws is a mere 15kg (33lb); despite which it can reface flange surfaces on pipes from 1in-4in with ease - the vast majority of lines fall within this range - using standard half-inch cutting tools.

Hydratight engineers have pared weight but not features: the system has interchangeable lead screws that make it suitable for resurfacing damaged raised-face and lens-ring joint flanges to the varying standards of finish demanded of standard and compact flange designs.

Market leading training courses

As well as developing industry-leading equipment, Hydratight is renowned for its training programmes.

Subsea has traditionally suffered from a lack of attention in accredited training terms, even though subsea joint integrity is a key issue for the industry. Equipment downtime due to lack of training and safety procedures continues to add significant but unnecessary time and cost to projects.

In summer 2009, Hydratight began to redress the balance by launching the first City and Guilds-accredited range of subsea training courses in mechanical joint integrity, making qualifications gained through them widely accepted internationally.

Developed in direct response to feedback from customers, the courses cover the use of hydraulic torque and tensioning equipment for the subsea sector and provide an insight into other Hydratight subsea integrity equipment, such as flange pullers, nut splitters and bespoke equipment. Maintenance and fault finding issues are also addressed, ensuring candidates have a clear practical understanding of the tools and equipment prior to mobilisation.

The courses are part of Hydratight's commitment to improve the skills needed to reduce leakages on all assets within industry sectors, while concentrating on the health and safety of all personnel using high pressure hydraulic torque and tensioning equipment.

To reduce risk it is essential for engineers, divers and operators to become totally familiar with all the equipment involved in critical integrity issues. Such courses delivered at the client's premises or Hydratight's training academy offer clients the opportunity to ensure the risk involved is kept to a minimum.

Hydratight has always been at the forefront with technology and training because the company is constantly developing new technologies and services to complement an ever-changing sector.

New problems always arise, which means new solutions continually need to be found. Hydratight works hard to stay ahead of everyone else; that's the major reason the company has been so successful - and continues to be.