Kaşif
Gallery
Overview
Turkey's domestically built heavy work-class ROV, used on TPAO drillships in the Black Sea.
Kaşif ('explorer') is a heavy work-class remotely operated vehicle built in Turkey by Armelsan and used by the state oil company TPAO on its drillships in the Black Sea. The 3.5-tonne robot uses electric thrusters and hydraulic tools to cut, turn valves and replace seals on subsea equipment at the Sakarya gas field, and one unit has worked for 12 days straight at 1,200 metres. It was developed to reduce Turkey's reliance on imported offshore robots.
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Notes
Built by Armelsan as a hybrid work-class ROV: seven brushless electric thrusters plus a hydraulic system for tools and drawers, in an open frame about 3 m long, 2 m high and 3.5 t. Wikipedia gives a 3,000 m rating, while Armelsan quotes up to 4,000 m for the family, which includes a larger KAŞİF X-Large. First used on the drillship Fatih in Black Sea gas exploration, it now supports the Fatih, Kanuni and Abdülhamit Han drillships at the Sakarya gas field; one unit worked 12 days at 1,200 m without surfacing and KAŞİF-1 has logged about 10,000 hours. Local content was 53%.
