Viking Life-Saving Equipment acquires HydroPen

HydroPen was founded in 2016 by chief executive Martin Winkel and chief technology officer and system inventor, Jesper Rosenfeldt Hansen. Their aim was to apply innovative, safe and user-friendly technology to revolutionise firefighting on board container vessels.

The International Union of Marine Insurance has called for ship design and fire-fighting equipment improvements on ultra large container ships and the acquisition follows a fire in April on board a 4,200TEU container ship off Malaysia which took 50 local firefighters to bring under control.

Viking first signed a deal with HydroPen in 2017 after the system won that year’s Danish Tech Challenge accelerator prize. “From its official launch at SMM 2018, Viking became HydroPen’s exclusive distributor, going on to support orders from some of the industry’s biggest names,” said Lasse Boesen, senior product manager, Viking.

Attached to a ship’s hose and raised on a telescopic arm by a single crew member, water pressure alone powers HydroPen’s ‘drill and spray’ nozzle to penetrate a container door before switching to spray mode to extinguish a fire with water, foam or CO2.

“Once crews familiarise themselves with HydroPen there is no going back,” said Lasse Boesen. “Since its introduction, the system has already proven itself in live firefighting situations.”