As many offshore oil rigs reach the end of their life, the need for portable machine tools to assist with decommissioning is set to increase. One example of a difficult challenge faced by decommissioning engineers is the need to sever and lift caissons or casings - often in very difficult and extreme working conditions. Finding the right equipment to carry out these operations efficiently and safely isn’t easy – which is why the Mirage design team have designed three types of casing pin drills for different situations. Let’s take a look at these three machines.

Portable band saws are designed to be robust and simple to use. If you use them correctly you’ll experience hours of trouble-free cutting with plenty of use from each band saw blade.

With Mirage Portable Band Saws, you get an M42 carbide tipped blade provided as standard. These rugged bi-metal blades feature M42 high speed steel edges - making them ideal to use when cutting difficult to machine solids and heavy walled structures. So if you intend to cut heavy walled pipe and other oil & gas structures these are the blades to use.

Getting involved in portable machining projects within the nuclear power sector isn’t normally a quick and simple process. The unique nature of some projects (especially in nuclear decommissioning), the safety risks involved, getting security clearance, and the lengthy tender processes can be off putting to say the least.

But for those who do win the contracts, there’s plenty of familiar opportunities from on-site machining.

Away from the nuclear reactor, the fundamentals are pretty much the same as for fossil fuel power stations. There’s steam turbines to be maintained and plenty of pipe and flange joints to be kept safe and secure. 

So for those of you unfamiliar with the nuclear power sector and thirst for knowledge, we’ve put together an A to Z of the essentials. This is to give you a very basic introduction, so if you want to know more see the websites listed at the end of the article.

Considering the negative media coverage over the past few years, you’d be forgiven for thinking that nuclear power is out of favour and is in a state of terminal decline. Whilst this may be the case in some countries, for many others, the ‘pros’ of reducing greenhouse gases and other emissions from fossil fuels outweighs the ‘cons’ of potential nuclear accidents.

This continued demand for new nuclear power plants combined with the need for decommissioning of older nuclear installations presents attractive on-site machining opportunities for contractors, large and small.  Using information sourced from the EIC (Energy and Industries Council), we’ve listed some sizeable nuclear power projects you may be interested in.

Mirage in-situ machining products are used for many different applications across a wide range of industry sector. That's why do our best to keep up to date with the latest industry trends and predictions. This not only helps us forecast demand for products, but also drives our product development, sales and marketing strategies.

So what does the future hold for the sectors that generate work for the on-site machinist? Take a look at some recent predictions we’ve found from various of sources below.