Bauer Maschinen develops seabed drilling rig MeBo 200

BAUER Maschinen GmbH, together with the Bremen Centre for Maritime Environmental Sciences MARUM, developed the seabed drilling rig MeBo 200. This special drilling rig will be used by the Bremen University Institute for research purposes. The MeBo 200 is operated from a research vessel. It is pressure compensated and can be lowered down to depths of up to 4,000 meters and can extract 200-meter-long cores from the sea-bed.

Advertisement

This special drilling rig, which is around six meters tall and weighs ten tons, was developed and built by Bauer. Bauer is also responsible for the entire hydraulically operated controls.

A predecessor for the MeBo 200 was already available in the BAUER Maschinen Group. This rig, also commissioned by Marum, was manufactured in 2004 by PRAKLA Bohrtechnik GmbH in Peine.

Important for the client from Bremen were the drilling know-how acquired by Bauer over decades, and the control engineering. The seabed poses the same geological challenges that the Bauer engineers have encountered while carrying out special foundation engineering work on all continents: from loose stone layers and silty soil right up to rocks of different strengths.

The Marum Institute presented the rig to the public in summer 2014. The Bremen Research Institute was founded by Prof. Gerold Wefer over the course of many years. Project manager Dr. Tim Freudenthal is responsible for the scientific set-up and configuration of the drilling rig and for carrying out the drilling work, which should commence in 2015. The rig is financed as part of a project by the German Ministry of Education and Research.