{"id":8932,"date":"2016-08-11T09:37:29","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T09:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/old\/\/?p=8932"},"modified":"2016-08-11T09:37:29","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T09:37:29","slug":"quality-reliability-take-precedence-subspec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/quality-reliability-take-precedence-subspec\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality and Reliability Take Precedence at Subspec"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional deep-sea divers need to know a thing or two about technology and engineering, but they\u2019re not usually required to know how to run CNC machine tools. The founders of Italian dive equipment manufacturing company, Subspec Srl, on the other hand, have taught themselves all they need to know to make parts for some of the best and most innovative commercial dive systems available.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend and colleague, Ciro Caiazzo, and I started the company in 2012,\u201d says Managing Director David Marzi. \u201cWe were both commercial divers working around the world in the oil and gas industry. We had an idea for a gas reclaim valve \u2013 we felt the industry generally was slow to develop and adopt new technology, so we thought we\u2019d design, make, and patent the product ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

During lengthy, deep dives, professional divers use very large amounts of breathing gas mix. A gas reclaim system recovers helium \u2013 an expensive constituent of breathing gas that would otherwise be vented and lost to the atmosphere. A gas reclaim valve is a critical component of the gas reclaim system, and is subject to high rates of wear and corrosion.<\/p>\n

\"haas\"The responsibility for running Subspec\u2019s CNC machining operations falls to Technical Director Ciro Caizzo: \u201cOur main machine is a Haas VM-2 mould maker,\u201d he says. \u201cOur products \u2013 typically valves \u2013 are critical features, and can mean the difference between life and death if they don\u2019t work flawlessly and reliably. We wanted to be 100 percent sure the parts were made to our standards, and to eliminate the possibility of quality issues. That\u2019s why we bought the Haas machine \u2013 so we could take control and do all the critical machining in-house. Most of the parts we make are stainless steel, and tolerances are tight; 0.02 mm is common for an O-ring seat. The VM-2 table has a grid of T-slots in X and Y, which gives us flexibility for holding all the different sizes and shapes of parts we machine. We also do our own laser welding in-house, and a few other processes, such as vacuum casting. \u201d<\/p>\n

These days, Subspec is a world-leader in bespoke subsea diving systems, and has close ties and partnerships with various other organisations, including neighbouring firm, Drass Srl, which manufacturers the full gas reclaim system in which the Subspec valve is used, as well as complete hyperbaric chambers, and other systems used by commercial saturation divers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make all the fittings and valves for the chambers, and the diver monitoring and safety systems built by Drass,\u201d says David. \u201cFor example, a \"Subspec-5-red\"complete hyperbaric chamber might cost a customer around \u20ac2 million. The parts we make could easily constitute \u20ac350,000 or more of that total cost. Being next door to Drass has helped our working relationship enormously. In fact, we\u2019re now invested as a partner of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question, Subspec is on a roll: \u201cWe\u2019re planning to open a UK office, and we have lots of ideas for new products,\u201d says David. \u201cPerhaps the most exciting is the full
\ndiving helmet we\u2019re designing. We\u2019re still at prototype stage, but we already plan to do all the machining in-house using a Haas UMC-750 universal machining centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an industry where mistakes are punished in the severest way, professional deep-sea divers are trained to get the job done, but carefully. David Marzi and Ciro Caiazzo don\u2019t take chances with the parts they make, or with the CNC machines they use to make them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professional deep-sea divers need to know a thing or two about technology and engineering, but they\u2019re not usually required to know how to run CNC machine tools. The founders of Italian dive equipment manufacturing company, Subspec Srl, on the other hand, have taught themselves all they need to know to make parts for some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1],"tags":[314,660],"class_list":["post-8932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-uncategorized","tag-case-study","tag-haas-automation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfgtechupdate.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}