Design methodology

Unique Hydra achieves industry-leading design results with our proven design methodology that has been carefully fine-tuned with the cumulative real-world experience offered by our engineering staff. Unique Hydra design methodology successfully blends innovation, efficiency and a strict focus on client success with the discipline, repeatability, quality and completeness that our substantial resources enable us to achieve and delivers not only comprehensive design services, but also complete back-end tasks such as factory test development, regulatory certification, integration, and validation. The result: Unique Hydra delivers complete product solutions on-time and on-budget.

System design

The best design solutions are realized when careful attention is given up-front to system level issues - feature definition and specification, functional partitioning, structural design, interface definition, and major component selection. Unique Hydra understands that decisions made early in the design process have a great impact on time to deliver and product cost, performance, manufacturability, and flexibility once in production. Unique Hydra excels at taking high-level business and technical objectives from our clients and synthesizing detailed engineering requirements and innovative designs uniquely tailored to each specific application. With our strong system engineering capability, Unique Hydra offers highly optimized solutions for our clients that will meet their business needs not only in the beginning, but far into the future. Our diverse marine industry experience creates a dynamic environment of hybrid solutions and cross-pollination of ideas, enabling us to deliver innovative design solutions that better utilize strategic technologies. With our broad experience and careful attention to system-level issues, Unique Hydra is able to deliver high quality design solutions on-time and on-budget.

Pressure vessel design

Unique Hydra’s engineering team specialises in the design of pressure vessels and, more specifically, pressure vessels for human occupancy (PVHO). Pressure vessels are used in a variety of applications and our team is able to design pressure vessels for use in the following: test chambers, diving cylinder, re-compression chamber, autoclaves, and many other vessels in mining or oil refineries. The marine sector is our speciality and sub-sea vessels are custom designed to suit exacting requirements.

Unique Hydra possesses various computer-aided analysis tools to perform complex engineering calculations. These include pressure vessel code calculations, structural frame calculations, compressible and non-compressible flow calculations and finite element stress analysis. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in particular is a good choice for solving complicated forms (like offshore launching structures and complex pressure vessels) as well as when the desired precision varies over the entire form, or when the solution lacks smoothness. Unique Hydra is able to perform thermal, electromagnetic, fluid, and structural FEA. In a structural simulation, FEA helps tremendously in producing stiffness and strength visualizations and also in minimizing weight, materials, and costs. FEA allows detailed visualization of areas where structures bend or twist, and indicates the distribution of stresses and displacements. FEA software provides a wide range of simulation options for controlling the complexity of both modelling and analysis of a system. Similarly, the desired level of accuracy required, and associated computational time requirements, can be managed simultaneously to address most engineering applications. FEA allows entire designs to be constructed, refined, and optimized before the design is manufactured. This powerful design tool has significantly improved both the standard of engineering designs and the methodology of the design process in many of our applications. In general the introduction of computer-aided analysis has substantially decreased the time to take products from concept to the production line and has realised a faster and less expensive design cycle, increased productivity, and increased revenue.

Unique Hydra’s electrical engineering team can custom-design your specific requirements on process control systems. A process control (or automation system) is used to automatically control a process such as ship’s navigation, power, etc., automatic overboard launch or gas control systems. The process control system interconnects sensors, controllers, operator terminals and actuators both logically by means of software and physically through networks or signal wires. The process control system involves using computer technology and software engineering to help operate more efficiently and safely. The systems typically use purpose-designed processors as controllers and both proprietary interconnections and communications protocol for communication.

Besides controlling processes, i.e. maintaining setpoints, executing tasks in defined sequences, handing exceptions and messages, these systems are also used to implement safety functions to protect life and equipment. Fail-safe CPUs and redundant hardware architectures are utilised to achieve required safety levels.  Modern process control systems not only provide control and visualisation, but also keep track of system events by maintaining historical data archives of important process variables such as pressures, gas concentrations, chamber occupation, etc.  Process control systems can easily be simulated for the testing, troubleshooting or training purposes (even before the dive system is physically constructed). Remote access to the control system (for instance over the internet) allows for real-time support and monitoring.

With a clear understanding of your requirements for automation, our team will be able to supply you with a quotation to design, construct and install a turnkey system to suit your scenario.