The new coupling was developed to enhance safety and to make the assembly and disassembly procedures for floating dredge hoses easier and faster, which is traditionally slow and labor intensive due to the use of bolted flange connections.
The field test showed that the new "quick connect dredge hose coupling" can be used without additional buoyancy, which is a direct result of the lightweight design. After the test the customer advised VOSTA LMG that "upon alignment of the male and female segments, the quick connect came together very easily".
The new "quick connect dredge hose coupling" is named the Straight Universal Coupling and can be supplied with a Formula 1 style manual operation or hydraulic operation.
Source: VOSTA LMG , 1 December 2014
The reduction in down time caused by speeding up the process can be a major cost saving in dredging operations.