From beginnings in 1896, the simple forge founded by Mr. A.J. Sas in the picturesque town of Gouda in central Netherlands has grown into an internationally recognised equipment supplier to the offshore oil and gas industry.
Early activities involved primarily ship repair but quickly expanded into custom designed and built machines for local industries such as pile drivers, cement mills, anchor winches, and being located in Gouda, cheese presses.
Over the ensuing 115 years, SAS has evolved into a highly regarded specialist in the design and manufacture of rugged and reliable equipment and sets a high standard within the industry.
Today SAS is an international company with in excess of 120 highly skilled and talented employees located at a completely renovated location at Alphen aan den Rijn. The major benefit of this location is its direct access to water with detachable floating assembly floor. The floor can be towed out and replaced by an inland canal barge allowing our heavy machinery to be loaded indoors then transported directly by barge to an international shipping point in Rotterdam.
A brand new sales and engineering office, SAS-USA, has recently been opened in Houston, Texas, to serve the vast and expanding oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Further SAS has service points in Brazil and Singapore and a facility in South Korea for fabrication and assembly.
The management team at SAS actively pursues an ongoing policy for improving and expanding our range of products. Since delivering our first pipe tensioner in 1968 we have evolved into one of the primary industry suppliers and have set the standard in development and manufacture of pipe and flexible laying systems with successful installations in productive operation on every one of the world’s oceans while working under the most severe conditions.
In 1896, winch manufacture was a staple in the product diet of SAS; however, it is only very recently that a special division has been established, within the organisation, dedicated to the development, design and manufacture of winch systems for the marine and offshore markets predominantly for heavy-duty deep water deployment and mooring applications.
The latest addition to our already extensive marine and offshore product line gains us entry into the highly specialised world of offshore oil floating production platforms. This latest offering, specifically aimed at spread mooring systems aboard FPSOs and FPUs of all configuration, has just emerged from a year long research and development program using a combination of existing technology and innovative design to develop our linear chain tensioner (LCT) range of mooring equipment products.
Our official introduction and launch of this equipment will be at OTC2012 in Houston where a fully functional, quarter scale prototype of a 120mm tensioner will be on display and in full operation at our booth (#2427).