Clampco Products Inc, a manufacturer of stainless steel T-bolt band clamps and V-band couplings, dives into every project, acting quickly and providing short lead times. That's why Bluefin Robotics Corp, located in Cambridge, MA, contacted Clampco when it needed help "testing the waters." Bluefin specializes in manufacturing underwater robotic equipment for offshore survey, military, and scientific research customers. Working with Clampco, Bluefin was able to complete an underwater robotics project for the U.S. Navy in record time.

Bluefin designed, built, tested, and demonstrated its Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for the Coastal System Station and the Office of Naval Research in approximately eight months -- half the time typically required for projects of a similar scale. Bluefin engineer Sam Tolkoff attributes this rapid development to one of its suppliers, Clampco Products, Inc, of Wadsworth, OH. For nearly 30 years, Clampco has been offering customers -- both large and small -- special design assistance and quick delivery.

"We considered several other suppliers when we first looked into the project," says Tolkoff. "However, Clampco was able to offer us the best lead time, and this is exactly what we needed -- fast delivery as well as special attention and support for our design requirements."

At Clampco, custom requests, such as the half couplings for Bluefin's project, are processed quickly and easily. For instance, Tolkoff's team needed to design the AUV with robust modular joints, which would let operators disassemble the equipment in two directions. They could either remove panels from the AUV or interchange the tail section with the top sections of 10 other vehicles. A V-band coupling, such as those pictured, is a fastener that offers this type of flexibility. But Bluefin had special design considerations above and beyond the standard V-band coupling. Tolkoff worked with Carl Klaus, sales engineer at Clampco, to meet Bluefin's custom requirements.

Typically, V-bands have a gap under the latch mechanism to facilitate installation. However, Bluefin engineers wanted to reduce the gap to increase total surface contact with the flanges. So Clampco simply rotated the position of the retainer segments so that the ends of the segments would sit under the latch.

Bluefin also required a fastener that would lie flush with the rest of the AUV surface, as the AUV needed to pass through torpedo shoots and other underwater obstacles. Through several minute design changes, Klaus and Tolkoff developed a coupling that would maintain this low profile. First, they changed the direction of the bend for the band loops. (Once the band loops are welded down, they hold the coupling components, such as bolts and trunnions, in place.) Instead of bending the band loops up and away from the center of the coupling, they reversed the bend toward the inside of the part. This design keeps the components in line with the outer band of the coupling and, in turn, the surface of the AUV.

Second, Klaus and Tolkoff tackled the issue of matching the flange diameter of the AUV sections with the proper V-band coupling. Because Tolkoff wanted a coupling that would lie flush with the surface panels, Klaus recommended the proper flange diameter for the AUV sections along with the appropriate material thickness for both the coupling band and retainer segments. To improve the coupling's corrosion resistance in the harsh salt-water environment, Clampco used 316 stainless steel bands.

When Bluefin demonstrated its AUV in the Gulf of Mexico last fall, representatives from both the Coastal System Station and the Office of Naval Research were impressed. According to Frank van Mierlo of Bluefin, the AUV made 20 successful dives during the exercise. It also successfully identified several different types of mines scattered throughout the area. On another occasion, van Mierlo reports that the AUV made several successful dives in rough waters with a navigational error of 3 meters or less. Bluefin representatives note that results like these generate many future orders.

When Tolkoff looks back on the project, he says that suppliers helped make it a success. He emphasizes that Clampco Products was instrumental in helping Bluefin achieve this ambitious milestone. "Clampco delivered products in a very short time frame," he says. "We could not have done this without their help."