Submersible Articulated Buoy (BAS – UMI)

Product developed and patented by UMI SAN, which combines the advantages of a fixed structure like a lighthouse, with the flexibility of a floating buoy and the possibility of submersion to optimize operations. They can also be equipped with LED (light emitting diode) lights, compact batteries, solar panels and remote communication modules.

Main advantages:

• Reduction of the volume to be dredged, eliminating the need for over-dredging areas on both banks outside the channel effectively used to compensate for the normal drift of a floating buoy.
• Reduction of the environmental impact due to dredging. By reducing the over-dredging area, the area of ​​interference on the bottom is also reduced.
• Reduction of the environmental risk caused by the grounding of the ship caused or aggravated by the lack of definition of the limits of safe navigation in the waterway.
• Greater precision in the position of the BAS, as it behaves like a lighthouse.
• Greater conspicuity of the signal due to the greater height of the BAS, which can be up to three times higher than the height of a floating buoy.
• Greater geographic reach of the BAS, due to its greater height above water level.
• Greater precision in delimiting the channel margins, since the rod, float and buoy form a rigid assembly. Therefore, the visible part of the signal (lantern, rod, radar reflector, service platform and top mark) is in the same geographic position as the buoy (channel margin).
• Possibility of using the BAS as a lateral alignment with double gates, eliminating the need for central alignment beacons and allowing alignment to be established in an extensive straight channel.
• Lower maintenance costs, since a small area is at the waterline, where the greatest corrosion occurs.
• Use of the BAS as a “transmission tower” for installing meteoceanographic data transmitters.