Technics & IT

Demonstrator for deep-sea pump system “Seafeather” – developed by FIELAX and AWI – successful first deployment in the Kermadec Trench

FIELAX and the Alfred Wegener Institute work together in the joint project "SeaFeather 10k" funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (FKZ 03SX480C). The goal is to develop a new, innovative deep-sea pumping system up to water depths of 10000m. The new system should enable various control options via measured values of additional sensors (e.g. pressure, conductivity, temperature), have modern battery technology and be intuitive to operate.

After test runs in a pressure tank and in the North Sea, the system was used for the first time under real conditions during the cruise SO289 of research vessel ‚FS Sonne‘. In the Kermadec Trench, approx. 500 liters could be successfully pumped through at almost 6000m within 1 hour. Pumping performance, filter pattern, battery performance, manageability and operation of the system as well as the data sets obtained met all set requirements. In the remaining term of the project, work is to be done on the development towards a prototype.

Feasibility study: Knowledge database

The digitization of facts and figures is nothing new these days. "Soft knowledge" such as customer preferences or general experience values, on the other hand, is often only in the heads of individual people.

In the "Knowledge Database" project, a modular framework was created whose module scope is constantly growing due to increasing customer requirements and automates a large part of the backend programming. This enables FIELAX to offer a product with which small and medium-sized companies can securely archive "soft" data and make it usable.

This project was financially supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

FIELAX supports the MOSAiC expedition

The MOSAiC expedition (www.mosaic-expedition.org) under the direction of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) is associated with unprecedented challenges. During the drift experiment, FIELAX supports the research crew on board the German research icebreaker FS Polarstern. 1-2 IT-specialists install and maintain parts of the extensive data management systems and also help to organize and backup all collected data. During the 12-month challenge, personnel, gear, consumables and fuel is replaced regularly. The first rotation currently takes place with help of the Russian icebreaker 'Capitan Dranitsyn'. The picture shows both vessels at their rendezvous.

Technics & IT

We have a wide expertise in technics and information technology for solving your questions on sensors, interfaces, networking, computers and data logging.

  • Installation, maintenance and supervision of scientific devices and IT systems
  • Expertise in various serial/bus/network data communication interfaces and protocols
  • Development of customized electronic hardware, circuit board design,  micro processor applications
  • Development of customized software
Programmable converterbox for serial data (front view)

Programmable converter box for serial data (RS232/RS422)

The German research icebreaker RV "Polarstern" now operates with programmable converter boxes by FIELAX. This box can read incoming serial data (interfaces RS232/RS422), convert/transform it by a programmable micro controller and output it serially. Multiple boxes have been installed on "Polarstern" to convert NMEA and binary data from a motion sensor to feed devices requiring specialised input telegram formats. Contractor was Reederei F. Laeisz GmbH. Read more