On June 18, 2023, the OceanGate TITAN, a submersible on its way to the Titanic wreck site, imploded. All five passengers were killed, including OceanGate CEO, Stockton Rush.
There was initially hope for a rescue, but once it became clear that the catastrophic event had left no survivors, the investigations began. These uncovered that many things went wrong in the lead-up to the implosion.
Despite projecting an intense safety culture, OceanGate regularly disregarded basic safety measures. They also deliberately worked outside of regulatory agencies and inspection protocols. As we have since learned, the toxic company culture created by CEO Stockton Rush led to firings, threatened firings, a near-complete turnover of the senior leadership team, and even a whistleblower who risked everything to try to shine a light on what he saw happening at the company.
In this episode of Art of Supply, I look into the connections between this tragic situation and OceanGate’s supply base.
Innovation or Recklessness?
OceanGate was trying to do something truly unique, and that was to make a carbon fiber submersible. Most of these vehicles are made of metal, which makes them stronger, but also heavier and more expensive to operate.
OceanGate was the first company to use carbon fiber in the hull of a deep-sea submersible. And that sounds really exciting… if you don’t know the end of the story.
Carbon fiber has been used extensively in aerospace and automotive, and we see evidence of that in the company’s supplier choices. They predominantly worked with companies that had expertise in creating carbon fiber craft to take to the skies, not to descend into the depths of the ocean.
There are some significant differences between using carbon fiber in aerospace manufacturing v. a deep-sea environment. The main structural difference between an aircraft fuselage and a submersible is the direction of the pressure.
With an airplane, you have pressure pushing from the inside out. Tightly wound carbon fibers are great at resisting expansion, four times better than steel wire, and they do a better job of keeping their shape under tension.
With the submersible, pressure would be directed from the outside in. When you put carbon fiber in a compression situation, it is not going to end well.
Composite Energy Technologies (CET) is a Rhode Island-based company that specializes in building carbon fiber pressure vessels for submersibles, and they have compiled an impressive record of safety and reliability. They say that carbon fibre can be used in this way, as long as the vessel is designed and tested properly… which we know OceanGate did not do.
CET President Chase Hogoboom told DesignNews, manufacturing variances can undermine the intended results: “Those variances can determine the ultimate strength of the item.”
When Innovation Outpaces Oversight
There were three OceanGate submersibles. According to OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein, the company did not intend to develop its own vessels, but as they discussed their requirements with submersible manufacturers, they learned that no one could deliver what they needed.
The ANTIPODES, used from 2009-2013, was a steel-hulled craft that OceanGate acquired. It was never going to be able to make the extreme dive to the Titanic wreck site, the core objective in OceanGate’s business plan. Once it was determined that the ANTIPODES had reached its peak without reaching the goal, the company had to consider other options.
Next was the CYCLOPS 1, another acquired steel-hulled craft. The company made significant modifications, but it still wasn’t fit for their purpose. At this point, OceanGate must have realized they were going to have to design and manufacture their own submersible from scratch.
Work began on the CYCLOPS 2, the submersible that would eventually become known as the TITAN. OceanGate worked with a number of different suppliers to make the TITAN and the two hulls it had during its lifetime.
The first hull was made by Spencer Composites. At the time, they were the only company to have previously made a carbon fiber hull for a manned submersible. That hull cracked in 2019, taking it out of service.
Immediately, work began on a second hull for the TITAN, and OceanGate selected new suppliers to do the work, suppliers that did not have experience making craft for deep-sea diving.
Composite Energy Technologies (CET) is a Rhode Island-based company that specializes in building carbon fiber pressure vessels for submersibles, and they have compiled an impressive record of safety and reliability. They say that carbon fibre can be used in this way, as long as the vessel is designed and tested properly… which we know OceanGate did not do.
CET President Chase Hogoboom told DesignNews, manufacturing variances can undermine the intended results: “Those variances can determine the ultimate strength of the item.”
When Innovation Outpaces Oversight
There were three OceanGate submersibles. According to OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein, the company did not intend to develop its own vessels, but as they discussed their requirements with submersible manufacturers, they learned that no one could deliver what they needed.
The ANTIPODES, used from 2009-2013, was a steel-hulled craft that OceanGate acquired. It was never going to be able to make the extreme dive to the Titanic wreck site, the core objective in OceanGate’s business plan. Once it was determined that the ANTIPODES had reached its peak without reaching the goal, the company had to consider other options.
Next was the CYCLOPS 1, another acquired steel-hulled craft. The company made significant modifications, but it still wasn’t fit for their purpose. At this point, OceanGate must have realized they were going to have to design and manufacture their own submersible from scratch.
Work began on the CYCLOPS 2, the submersible that would eventually become known as the TITAN. OceanGate worked with a number of different suppliers to make the TITAN and the two hulls it had during its lifetime.
The first hull was made by Spencer Composites. At the time, they were the only company to have previously made a carbon fiber hull for a manned submersible. That hull cracked in 2019, taking it out of service.
Immediately, work began on a second hull for the TITAN, and OceanGate selected new suppliers to do the work, suppliers that did not have experience making craft for deep-sea diving.
OceanGate selected Toray Composite Materials America as their carbon fiber supplier. Toray made the composite material and then sent it to another company, Electroimpact, for installation on the hull. Electroimpact laid the carbon fibers and sent the hull to yet another supplier, Janicki, who cured the material in its ovens. A final supplier, Collier Aerospace, was hired to stress test the TITAN (or CYCLOPS 2) existing hull and would have continued to support the OceanGate team if there had been a CYCLOPS 3.
I think this story gives us a new way to think about innovation and supplier relationships. It makes sense to experiment with techniques, but never outside of proper safety guidelines. I would love to know what it said in the contracts between OceanGate and their suppliers. What provisions were in place (disregarded or otherwise) to set expectations?
We will likely never know, but for every organization pursuing the next breakthrough, this story is a haunting reminder: no innovation is worth pursuing if the supply base can’t safely support it.
Links:
- Marine Board's Report Into the Implosion of the Submersible TITAN in the North Atlantic Ocean Near the Wreck Site of the RMS TITANIC Resulting in the Loss of Five Lives on June 18, 2023
- Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
- Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter
- Art of Supply on AOP
- Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
