On February 5, 2019, EOM Offshore, LLC became a SBIR Phase I award recipient under SBIR Topic N-183-141 entitled “Technology Development of Fiber Optic Moorings for Surface Communication Buoys.”

This is an exciting opportunity for EOM Offshore which plans to use its patented mooring technology to design a new lightweight, fiber optic Stretch EM Cable that will be used to tether communication gateway buoys. To date, there is not a mooring cable on the market that can strain as the communication gateway buoy moves on the surface in wave action without the fiber optics becoming damaged or compromised.

Communication buoys are provided by the U.S. Navy, NAVFAC, NAVSEA and SPAWAR and are important, because they provide multi-path transfers between the ocean an atmosphere in support of Fleet operations.

EOM Offshore, LLC was established in 2009 to commercialize a Stretch EM Cable that was developed by scientists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The patented technology is a specialized mooring element comprised of stiffened rubber and electrical coil cord that tethers to oceanographic buoys. The Stretch EM Cable uses mechanical compliance by elongating 2.5 times its original length in rough seas and returning to its original length in calm conditions.

While EOM Offshore’s Stretch EM Cable does not have fiber optics and oceanographic buoys are quite different than the mission for the communication gateway buoy, the company is confident that it will reach this goal to support U.S. Naval operations.