From a small business to an international group of companies

Over the last 30 years, the Rosen Group has evolved from modest beginnings in the field of pipeline inspection to a well-known company employing more than 2,000 staff. This success story started in Lingen, Northwest Germany, in a tiny office that specialised in electronic engineering, with only two employees.

The company was not working to capacity and therefore set out to explore an alternative range of uses for electronic measurement equipment and microprocessor systems, novel and innovative technologies at the time. A promising economic niche was discovered in the area of pipeline inspection technologies. The systematic examination of pipe defects such as leaks, dents, corrosion and cracks seemed to offer a challenging international field of business activities.

Rosen recognised early that due to the demanding nature of the oil and gas market, operators are under increasing pressure to run their facilities without interruption or downtime while at the same time being forced to meet more strict safety standards. The company’s product, service and technology developments closely follow the operational trends of the industry.

Rosen founder Hermann Rosen summed up the company’s early philosophy when he said “What others are doing, we should manage to achieve better, faster and cheaper without imitating.” This philosophy is still valid today.

Customer orientation and substantial investments

While other companies are granted high subsidies by federal and local governments, Rosen relies exclusively on its own economic and human resources. The company’s strong position in the world market is based on close customer relations and continuous investment in research and development.

Specific inspection challenges require tailor-made solutions. From the smallest device to the most complex inspection system, Rosen develops and combines every aspect of professional engineering in-house. This emphasis on service and innovation has proved to be a reliable recipe for success, as shown by annual growth figures.

While Rosen has become a multinational company, its focus on service has not changed. Its first priority is still to meet the ever-growing demands and fulfil the individual needs of customers around the world. Combining solid expertise and extensive experience, our employees constantly pursue this goal through their personal commitment and high-quality standards.

At Rosen, technological developments go hand-in-hand with long-term customer relationships and are founded on the essential values of the company embraced by Rosen employees all over the world. Long-term strategies, continuous investment in applied research and development, utilisation of the most sophisticated technology, and a flexible corporate structure are key factors in maximising client benefits. Only a convincing price-to-performance and price-to-value ratio can ensure consistent growth and secure the continued creation of jobs worldwide.

Re-organisation due to company growth and new business segments

Today, Rosen not only serves the oil and gas industry but also provides a wide range of sophisticated and innovative products and system solutions to engineering industries such as aerospace, marine, transportation and security. Rosen also has the expertise and equipment to inspect utility assets such as telecommunication towers, wind turbines, transmission towers, rail wheels and water distribution systems.

Rosen has enjoyed tremendous growth and success over the last 30 years. While the group is expanding, its products and services become more and more complex. Optimised organisation and effective communication are more important than ever before.

In order to keep the ability to respond to immediate problems and provide a solution in a timely and efficient manner, re-organisation of the Rosen Group was indispensable. Starting in early 2010, the restructuring measures are now fully implemented.

Special projects and technological feats

2009

World record: inspection of the longest subsea pipeline on the planet

With a total length of 1,170 km, Langeled Pipeline connecting Nyhamna in Norway and Easington in Great Britain is one of the world’s longest subsea gas pipeline. Having been awarded the contract for a single-run in-line inspection, Rosen was faced with a project that was both exciting and challenging.

The pipeline posed a number of difficulties – its unparalleled length, dual-diameter (42 inch and 44 inch sections) with high wall thickness, and its high product flow velocity. To ensure a successful single-run inspection of this extremely long pipeline, Rosen designed a customised inspection tool combining MFL and SIC technology. In the course of 127 hours, the tool covered a surface of 3.83 sq km on which approximately 450 billion measuring points were taken. A total of 374 GB worth of data was collected.

2009–2010

Novel pipe cap system for corrosion protection and monitoring

A system for the protection of pipes stored outside for use in subsea pipeline constructions was developed by ROPLAST and successfully used in the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline construction project. Over 200,000 pieces of the intelligent pipe caps were produced for the project which won the 2010 German Logistics Award of the German Logistics Association.

The novel pipe end caps consist of a combination of high-performance elastomers with sensors on the one hand and communication and software technology on the other. This combination constitutes a complete protection system. A central control system collects real-time data transmitted via self-assembling wireless networks and on that basis provides comprehensive documentation and data evaluation.

2011

To date, the ROSEN Group has inspected a total of over 1,000,000 km of pipelines all over the world.