If they work in the Faroes, then they’ll stand up to practically anything
That’s the thinking behind Vónin’s aquaculture cages. The Faroe Islands are a fantastic place to rear salmon, with perfect water temperatures and fast-flowing currents of crystal-clear water – but it’s still one of the toughest environments in the world to anchor cages and the advantages come as part of the north Atlantic weather that brings a string of storms that batter the islands every winter.
That’s the thinking behind Vónin’s aquaculture cages. The Faroe Islands are a fantastic place to rear salmon, with perfect water temperatures and fast-flowing currents of crystal-clear water – but it’s still one of the toughest environments in the world to anchor cages and the advantages come as part of the north Atlantic weather that brings a string of storms that batter the islands every winter.
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| www.vonin.com/en/aquaculture |
The plastic brackets
The brackets that hold the tubes of the cage rings together presented a few challenges and Vónin used computer-aided design to identify weak points and achieve the optimum strength in the HDPE100 injection moulded brackets.
“These had to be as strong as possible, with no compromises,” Vónin’s Bogi Nón commented. “The neck of the bracket tends to be the weak point where failures can occur, so it was important to get these right.”
Bakkafrost orders cages with distance bars
The first of the new Vónin cages, which were supplied to Faroese salmon producer Bakkafrost have had a full year in the firing line of those winter storms and passed that particular test with flying colours after a process of making some minor adjustments to ensure optimum performance.
Bakkafrost ordered eight cages, but also specified a design using steel distance bars between the brackets, allowing the cage tube itself to move freely inside the brackets – making the cages effectively self-cleaning, but with the downside of a more complex construction and requiring the distance bars to be extremely strong.
“There were some problems to overcome and Bakkafrost got its cages in two deliveries. There were a few challenges to start with to get the details right, but these were all dealt with and there were no problems at all with the second part of the delivery,” he said.
“Now they have been using the distance bars for more than a year with no problems other than a few teething troubles while we were getting things right at the outset.” “Those cages have now been out for a whole year, with a full Faroese winter’s use behind them in a demanding location.”
Read the full article HERE.
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