Syntech Buoyancy Foams

Founded in 1985 and serving the marine and oceanographic industries worldwide, Syntech’s core business has been the manufacture of syntactic foam buoyancy modules for Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) for more than a quarter of a century. During this time we have also developed a range of syntactic materials for numerous other subsea and marine applications.

The quality and reliability of buoyancy products produced by Syntech is evidenced by the fact that we are a leading supplier to many OEM’s and end users of equipment such as work-class ROV’s and observation class ROV’s, AUV’s, trenchers, deep water moorings, torpedo target arrays, sonar arrays, and scientific instrumentation. In addition to the manufacture of buoyancy Syntactic material’s properties can also be tailored to meet the varying demands of a variety of underwater applications. In particular the acoustic characteristics of our materials, such as transparency, absorption, reflection, and refraction, are ideally suited for underwater applications, such as acoustic windows, anechoic test tank linings, and transducer isolators and decouplers.

Custom-made tooling can be used to manufacture specific syntactic foam geometries in batch quantities, or alternatively, for smaller custom applications blocks or sheets can be bonded, finish machined and ultimately coated in a protective skin.

Standard buoyancy foams are designed for deep underwater flotation requirements, from 1,000 to 30,000 ft. Our industry renowned product reliability has been demonstrated in a variety of applications, including remote operated vehicles (ROV’s), deep water moorings, torpedo target arrays, sonar arrays, and scientific instrumentation, to name a few.

From the inception of Syntech, it was realized by the founders that the properties of syntactic foam could be tailored to yield a variety of underwater acoustic characteristics, such as transparency, absorption, reflection, and refraction. This work has led to a family of materials that are being employed in various underwater applications, such as acoustic windows, anechoic test tank linings, and transducer isolators and de-couplers. Our in-house acoustic test facility is designed to characterize these products across a broad range of frequencies.

The following outlines the various product lines with acoustic characteristics:

Standard Buoyancy Foams: Some standard syntactic buoyancy foams manufactured by Syntech Materials may be applicable in alternative areas of underwater acoustic noise control, especially above 1 MHz The buoyant, high-strength materials, especially our low-density syntactic foams, are successfully being used as pressure release materials in a variety of transducer assembly applications.

Anechoic Materials – The SADM Group: Through a Small Business Innovative Research program sponsored by the US Navy, the inherent mechanical properties of syntactic foam were developed into an underwater sound-absorbing composite capable of withstanding high hydrostatic pressures. This work led to the group being employed primarily as anechoic test tank liners and unique sound attenuating structures.

Syntactic Acoustic Damping Material

Syntech combines syntactic foam technology with advanced acoustics theory into a novel class of underwater sound attenuators. These materials, known as the SADM, have repeatedly shown high levels of echo reduction and insertion loss over the 10 KHz – 100 KHz range, both at ambient pressure and at operating depth. Two types of materials are available: -1 series for broadband attenuation and -0.5 series for improved performance at higher frequencies (above 30 KHz). These materials have been found to be extremely effective in a number of underwater acoustic applications. SADM has been used extensively as an anechoic acoustic test tank lining. Acoustic characterization