- Colmek Systems Engineering
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Colmek Systems Engineering is an engineering company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Colmek offers its engineering services to research, military and commercial customers worldwide.
Contents
History
Colmek Company was founded in 1975 by Tom Meyer to fulfill a contract of developing a deep sea mining experiment. The contract was offered by International Nickel, a Canadian company, to harvest manganese nodules off the coast of Hawaii. Companies from Germany, Japan and the United States were also in a consortium with International Nickel to fulfill the project.
There were two phases of the project. The first phase was surveying areas of high concentration of manganese nodules that were mapped out. The second stage was a follow up stage where a drilling vessel from SEDCO was sent out. It was at then that Tom Meyer offered ownership to the company. In 1978 employees Tom Hilton and Brent Miller acquired Meyer’s interest in the company, with the approval of International Nickel.
The collection phase was tested south of Hawaii and was highly successful. When the project ended in 1979, Tom Hilton and Brent Miller headquartered Colmek in Salt Lake City.
1979 – 1984 1st Clients
As Colmek grew during 1979, some of their notable accomplishments were building a side-scan sonar multiplexer that ran at deep depths for Klein and Associates, a sonar company in New Hampshire. Additionally Colmek introduced deep sea telemetry systems for companies such as: AT&T (Trans Oceanic Cable Inspection) and the United States Geological Survey (U.S.G.S).
Colmek engineered telemetry and data systems for remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) for Perry Offshore and Oceaneering International (OII). The systems provided to OII were installed in a vehicle called Orion, which later helped locate pieces of the Challenger space shuttle.
Colmek also provided camera and telemetry systems to organizations such as: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI).
Location of the Titanic
When Robert Ballard received funding from the Navy to search for the RMS Titanic, he utilized Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) to support the mission. Woodshole’s critical instrumentation: a camera mux, sonar mux and downstream power to its vessel the Argo (ROV) were supplied by Colmek.[1] Colmek’s employees were present, providing technical support when the Titanic was found on September 1, 1985 at a depth of 12,400 feet.[2]
Ocean Drilling Program and the Chicxulub crater
In 1986 the Ocean Drilling Program was awarded to Texas A&M University. SEDCO provided a drilling vessel the JOIDES Resolution, while Colmek provided data, video and sonar telemetry for the ocean drilling re-entry tool.[3] The project was started to conduct scientific research on the Earths sediment.
A highlight of the JOIDES Resolution program was the discovery of the Chicxulub crater, which is thought to be the location of the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.[4]
After more than 20 years, the JOIDES Resolution is still used today as a primary vessel for scientific drilling.
Location of the Bismarck
Colmek provided the technical support on the successful mission by Robert Ballard to locate the German battleship Bismarck on June 8, 1989 at a depth of 15,700 ft.[5]
1990 – 2000
In 1990 Colmek installed telemetry systems for a Japanese government mining system as well as a South Korean government research mission to harvest red coral.
Colmek designed and tested two mine detection systems in 1992. One was for Alliant Tech (previously Honeywell), and the other known as the Q-14 for Northrop Grumman (previously Westinghouse). The Q-14 is now called the Q-24 and continues to be updated and supported by Colmek.
Raytheon
In 2003, Colmek was contracted to design a replacement for an end of life VME chassis for the Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapons Systems) Program for the defense contractor Raytheon. This production of this chassis continues today under a current contract with Raytheon.
Merger
The New York based company Coda Octopus Group Inc. acquired Colmek Systems Engineering in April 2007. [6]
References
- ^ Argo Development Program
- ^ Ballard 1987, p. 69.
- ^ Texas A&M JOIDES Resolution Shipboard Scientific Party
- ^ New York Times "New Proof of Asteroid's Devastation"
- ^ Ballard 1990, p. 179.
- ^ Coda Octopus Group History
- Ballard, R (1987). "The Discover of the Titanic", Warner Books.
- Ballard, R (1990). "Robert Ballard's Bismarck", Chartwell Books, Inc..
External links
Categories:- Engineering companies of the United States
- Companies based in Utah
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