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Sunday, August 23, 2009 KEVIL, Ky. — Some Ballard County folks wonder if Chuck Phillippe is building submarines in the big blue building off U.S. 60 between Kevil and La Center. Even a teacher of Phillippe’s son asked if it was true. Not quite, but the rumor gives Phillippe, a former Navy submariner, a good laugh. He’s hosted students and invited other curious people to AC Plus Marine to lessen the intrigue. The truth is the firm is building its first complete system for divers to repair oil derricks as deep as 1,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico. Phillippe and his wife, Cyndie, founded the firm in 1995 in the Chicago area as a complete ship systems maintenance and equipment company. They moved to western McCracken County in 2002 to be near Paducah, known as the hub of the nation’s river trade. Over the years, they developed customized heating-cooling and refrigeration systems for boats and adapted them for diving vessels. Their first big customer was Oceaneering International, a global oilfield engineering firm that in 2005 bought two environmental conditioning units to heat, cool and dehumidify diving bells. “It became apparent to us there was nobody in the U.S. who actually built systems from the ground up,” Phillippe said. “Our goal was to build a system equal to or superior to anybody’s in the world and put U.S. dive equipment-building back on the map.” The company has grown from $300,000 to $8 million in annual sales, and from three to 33 employees. Saturation diving systems — named for the gaseous mix that deep-sea divers breathe to stay alive — cost anywhere from $8 million to $20 million, based on size and complexity, Phillippe said. His firm’s system is bound via the Mississippi River to New Orleans where Houston-based Bisso Marine Co. does oil-derrick work. The system has two main chambers, a three-person diving bell, a 12-person hyperbaric rescue chamber, and a launch and recovery system. It also includes four support/equipment vans to control and regulate the entire operation. “Our systems are designed for deployment anywhere in the world,” Phillippe said. Fail-safe, green Working deep in the ocean is a very risky venture because of incredible water pressure and breathing an oxygen-and-helium mix that can cause life-threatening problems if divers come up too fast, Phillippe said. Decompression can take three days to two weeks, depending on depth. Many divers start feeling drunk and disoriented at 190 feet deep, after which nitrogen becomes increasingly toxic, he said. The diving system replaces nitrogen with safer helium, but helium causes the body to lose heat more quickly and makes the voice high and difficult to understand. “Cold and wet, sweating and freezing, cramps,” said Scott Key, a Bisso Marine diver helping with the AC Plus work. “You can’t talk right. And you rely on people on the outside to do everything for you.” AC Plus’ intricate design and 100 percent redundant safety systems afford a lot of confidence, Key said. “It’s the best system I’ve run across, definitely.” Equipment tethered from one of the vans uses waste-heat recovery to keep the diving bell comfortable, automated controls to reduce potentially deadly humidity and voice descramblers to improve communication. Phillippe said the recovery system cuts power consumption by more than half. Equipment also recycles about 85 percent of the expensive helium. “Some think people in the petroleum industry don’t care about energy,” he said. “We care just as much as the next guy does, because our customers are paying for it, and we’re paying for it.” The bell is made of 11/4-inch-thick steel and designed to operate safely at the same depth as many modern submarines, Phillippe said. Area trade Precision Steel of Calvert City did the ultra-precise fabrication needed for the vans, which rest on the deck of a ship and are the brain center for the bell. “They’ve done an outstanding job, good enough that we’re probably going to let them build the chambers and framework for a new system it looks like we have sold,” Phillippe said. “It will be several million dollars worth of work.” Precision, which branched 2-1/2 years ago into barge building and marine fabrication, had done pressurized tanks but nothing like the diving-system vans, said Brian Sayner, marketing director. “This was a good piece of work for us,” he said. “Anytime you do work in a new market, it potentially can provide you access to new markets. The marine business is huge and international.” Depending on AC Plus’ growth and marketing, Precision could need four or five more welders and pipefitters exclusively for diving-system work, earning $15 to $20 an hour, Sayner said. Other area firms have benefited from the diving venture. Phillippe said Kevil Tool and Dye did machining, G&C Multi-Services cut panels, River Graphics did graphics for the panels, and Ferguson Enterprises provided parts. The latter three firms are in Paducah. “I’m excited about the positive impact this project and future projects by AC Plus Marine will have on our local economy,” said state Rep. Steve Rudy, a Ballard County native. Growth plans Phillippe said another diving company is interested in two large systems, and AC Plus also will build smaller systems to lease to firms that can’t afford to buy them. Depending on the number of new contracts, the company could add 10 to 20 tradesmen, he said. “We’re trying to get vocational schools more interested in what we do here, which involves mechanical engineering and physical sciences,” Phillippe said. “It’s neat and fun.” The business is erecting a $750,000 plant and office building with plans to open next spring, in time for the huge equipment needed for new jobs, he said. Paducah Bank has exclusively financed AC Plus, but the diving-system work has grown so expensive that may change, Phillippe said. “We won’t switch accounts, but they’re trying to arrange financing with larger institutions,” he said. “That’s something to be said for them to take the time to work with us.”
Contact Joe Walker, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8656.
AC Plus Marine 7017 Paducah Road, Kevil Owner/president: Cyndie Phillippe Vice president, engineering/sales: Chuck Phillippe Annual sales: $8 million Employees: 33 Work: diving systems design, manufacturing; ship systems, maintenance Copyright 2009
The Paducah Sun |
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