What is a cable float?

Writer： admin Time：2025-09-15 14:45:28 Browse：22℃

In subsea engineering, a cable float is a buoyancy device designed to support and manage subsea power cables, umbilicals, and flexible risers. These floats help reduce tension, prevent damage from seabed abrasion, and ensure cables maintain the correct configuration during offshore installation and long-term operation.

For shallow water projects, cable floats are often made from polyethylene foam or plastic shells. But in deepwater environments, where pressure is extremely high, only solid buoyancy materials (syntactic foam) can perform reliably. Syntactic foam is a composite material made of hollow microspheres embedded in resin, which provides high compressive strength and long-term buoyancy even under thousands of meters of seawater.

This is why deep-sea cable floats are essentially solid buoyancy modules—robust, pressure-resistant, and engineered to last throughout the lifecycle of the subsea system.

Where does FLOAT X come in?

At FLOAT X, we specialize in designing and manufacturing solid buoyancy materials and subsea buoyancy modules, including cable floats for deepwater applications. Our products are engineered to deliver:

• Stable buoyancy in high-pressure subsea environments

• Protection for umbilicals, flexibles, and power cables

• Long-term durability for offshore oil & gas, renewable energy, and subsea robotics projects

If you’re interested in learning more about subsea buoyancy solutions, visit us at 👉 www.floatxco.com