Corus Process Engineering (CPE) has been awarded a contract from BAE Systems Submarine Solutions Ltd to manufacture a range of long lead time equipment for use on the Astute Class submarine Boat Number 5.The contract involves the manufacture of watertight doors, including all associated locking/interlocking mechanisms; tunnel door and shielding plug arrangement; tunnel hatch; re-fuelling plugs; and a variety of other blanking plugs and inserts.

The watertight doors, which will be manufactured at CPE This contract follows similar contracts for the supply of equipment to Astute Class submarine, Boat Numbers 1 to 4. Equipment for Boats 1-3 has already been delivered, with equipment for Boat 4 currently progressing through CPE’s Workshops.

Vaughan Wilson, Project Manager at CPE commented: “CPE has already carried out numerous contracts for similar work on the Astute Class submarine, including watertight doors, torpedo tubes and re-fuelling plugs. The watertight doors in themselves are very complex items. Some of the items require special materials, heat treatment or need to be fabricated, so it all involves a lot of engineering skills and technical know-how.”

“There’s a lot of complex welding required on the project. Fortunately, CPE possesses the necessary experience and skills in welding to do this. We use a range of different welding techniques on the doors, including MIG, TIG and flux-cored arc welding, either manually or automatic,” added Wilson.

CPE manufactures high specification doors for use in submarines, surface vessels and platforms, ranging from watertight doors and tunnel doors. All these are machined and assembled from castings and forgings, working from drawings provided by the customer.

For more information on CPE and its range of engineering solutions for the defence industry, please visit the website at www.corusnes.com or telephone Claire Dempster on 01900 842 662 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.