Seeing the light

Opening shipbuilder?s eyes to the benefits of safety systems

Quite a lot has happened since The Motor Ship?s last visit to the Sound Alert technology ? particularly significant is the American Council for the Blind (ACB) announcement ? which could force all passenger ships to fit the technology, if they want to visit the US. The ACB at its annual conference passed a resolution to press for directional sound evacuation (DSE) to be fitted in all buildings, aircraft and passengers ships, which is likely to add impetus to Sound Alert?s work in getting the system approved. Unlike charity organisations for the blind in the UK, the ACB in the US is a political lobbying group that holds some real power. “Lobbying minority groups are taken far more seriously in the US,” says Mike Lunch, managing director of Sound Alert.

While the IMO liked the DSE concept, progress has been particularly slow for something that is an obvious safety benefit. “Many of the members (of the correspondence group) encouraged us to use the provisions of the new SOLAS II-2 Regulation 17 (alternative arrangements) to bring forward safety cases on a ship by ship basis to use DSE instead of low location lighting (LLL) on new builds,” says Lunch. “This means the technology is effectively available now,” he explains.

The technology may be available now, but as yet, there are no takers in the marine sector, mainly because owners are not being forced to fit the system. “We?re really powerless without there being further legislative pressure to fit the system,” explains Lunch. He told The Motor Ship that up until now the company had decided to go for equivalence to LLL because if mandatory fit were the aim, many countries would oppose it. However, this is turning out to be a very slow process, despite the fact that Lunch estimates it would only cost in the region of £300,000 to equip an 80-90,000 GT vessel, which he estimates is two-thirds the cost of an active LLL system. Many owners are now opting for the much cheaper and less effective passive system, which still fulfils the regulatory requirements.

There have been several cases of cruise lines taken to court in the US for discrimination against the blind. While an early case got thrown out with the judge ruling that the Americans With Disabilities Act doesn?t apply to foreign flagged cruise ships ? this was overturned in appeal and Premier Cruises lost the case.

There has since been a number of cases against cruise lines and a number of them are now allowing blind people to travel independently without restrictions. But there is, of course, the issue of how will they evacuate in the case of fire as LLL is not a lot of use to someone who can?t see!

Although Sound Alert has no marine customers as yet, it is still holding talks with the major cruise and ferry operators and Lunch says: “We do have some bids on the table ? but these are more long term.”

The company is currently holding talks with manufacturers of PA/GA systems for manufacture of the beacons. As these systems are already used onboard ships, Lunch explains that the Sound Alert would just be “an add-on that isn?t rocket science”. The hope is that cruise ships owners will wake up and see just how much of a benefit the Sound Alert system is in an evacuation situation.

Composite fire door

Two key driving forces in modern engineering are weight saving and faster manufacture. Recent developments from TWI tackle these issues head on, offering attractive propositions to ship builders and ship repairers alike. In a previous issue of The Motor Ship, Barrikade was introduced, which offers a novel low density, fire-resistant and thermally insulating material made up of vermiculite particles bonded with blended-silicate based binders.

A growing market for Barrikade is for use in fire doors and TWI is working with a fabricator to produce an advanced composite fire door that will exceed current standards in design and performance.

Many different materials can be used for the outer skin of Barrikade components ? wood, metals, plastics, and composites ? so designers can achieve a wide variety of finishes and textures depending on the product specification.

The incorporation of new materials and approaches not used before is expected to appeal to designers and architects looking to expand and enhance their creative thoughts, especially for applications where low maintenance is of importance.

The original fire door system design has received a SMART award to progress it to full-scale production and then onto market. When The Motor Ship last spoke to Paul Burling, principal engineer for advanced material processes business development at TWI Ltd, he was working with a company to spray coat with Barrikade, however Burling says that this has been discontinued due to the company reconsolidating its R&D work back into its parent company.

TWI is continuing to work on Barrikade as a core for fire doors, bulkheads and hatches and is looking at higher temperature applications between 1,400° and 1,500°C. TWI is also looking to get e2 million of Framework 6 European funding for a project involving up to ten companies from four countries researching Barrikade for use in fire doors and partitions.

TWI has also developed a new concept in modular sandwich panel structures called Ex-Struct. It consists of an array of interlocking extruded or machined units onto which the panel skins are stake welded using a CO2 or Nd:YAG laser. The design of the machined extrusion is such that male and female connections are created on the outside of the unit, thus allowing many panels to be slotted together to create a larger structure.

The simplicity of the design means that repair of Ex-Struct panels is straightforward and, if a whole panel is damaged, it can simply be removed and replaced with another. If panels are only partially damaged, the skin can be cut off, the damaged module routed out and replaced, and another skin welded on.

The application of Ex-Struct can be taken a step further by inserting Barrikade between the module skins, giving a very rigid but lightweight structure which is highly resistant to fire, heat and impact.

Smoke barrier

Another product designed to improve safety on passenger ships is Solar Solve?s Smoketite. The company, well known for its range of Solasolv anti-glare sunscreen for navigation bridge windows and Rolasolv fabric roller blinds for marine interiors has ventured into the safety market with Smoketite, a heavy-duty flame-retardant fabric mounted in an aluminium frame.

Accident investigation reports have indicated that barriers, which reduce the spread of smoke can be helpful in reducing evacuation times and fatalities, as the main cause of fire related transportation deaths is smoke rather than burn injuries.

When fire broke out in Alaskan waters during July 1996 on the Panamanian registered passenger vessel, Universe Explorer, there was a delay between the fire first being detected and a coded message altering crew to the situation being broadcast.

This meant that fire doors were not closed immediately, allowing a lethal amount of smoke to enter sections of the crew accommodation. Heavy fire doors had been tied back in crew sleeping areas to reduce noise disturbance, this further worsened the situation. Several passengers suffered the effects of smoke inhalation and sadly five members of the ship?s crew were overcome by smoke and died.

This incident raised several safety concerns, not least the need for an effective fire detection system, but also just how dangerous rapidly spreading dense smoke can be.

Smoketite holds back smoke in specific locations making it easier to see and breath thereby greatly assisting evacuation. Manually operated versions of the screen have already been installed, however regulators specify that electrical operation is now necessary. Preliminary tests have proved extremely successful and Solar Solve says it is hopeful that a full product launch will take place soon.

The manual version of the product was showcased at Norshipping where Julie Lightfoot, managing director said: “Norshipping has already generated one order plus a number of very promising enquiries, which proves our efforts are headed in the right direction. We are particularly pleased with the general interest in our Smoketite screen and have already received a number of orders as a result of our marketing campaign.”

Secure AC

Giles Consulting reports that passenger ship owners are going further than the SOLAS Regulations and ISPS Code when it comes to passengers? safety and security. Air conditioning (AC) systems now form part of an integrated security management philosophy.

AC no longer stands alone and it influences the design of newbuildings, particularly with reference to the air intakes.

Technology now allows auto-activation of surveillance devices that are programmed to shut down or boost AC units when unauthorised activity is detected in areas of high sensitivity. Technology is also moving towards being able to identify a variety of chemicals and particulates. It will not be long before real time information on complex gas and biological contaminants can be identified.

This will allow the rapid treatment of contaminated air through hypersensitive, disinfection procedures.

James Giles, director of engineering at Giles Consulting told The Motor Ship that this type of technology is readily available to the military, but was not yet commercially viable. “The core is the sensor, which needs to be most reliable and is very expensive,” explains Giles.

It will probably not be available commercially for a couple of years. But as these advances in equipment are dependent on the age of the vessel and, if designed in at the new-build stage, are an affordable and logical provision.

The technologies can be governed by a security overlay management system. An example of this in action might be if a motion sensor detects an unauthorised entry into an AC room. This would set in motion a series of pre-planned actions, which may involve some of the other engineering systems.

Treatment by way of boosting extract fans may be activated if sensors have indicated ingress of foreign particles into the air stream. Giles says that real-time video can also be used to detect the number of people in a room and raise an alert if it appears to be too many. This could be in the form of a pager or a light on a console.

The benefits from implementing such as system can be both direct and indirect. The system can reduce the security risk and can help to save money and energy. The real time video system can be used to monitor the number of people in public spaces and adjust the air conditioning system accordingly.

The secret of integrating air quality and security is through design and planning, which needs to be introduced at the concept stage. As Giles says, it is very expensive to implement design changes once the final design has been agreed upon.

The security people need to “remove their security glasses”, which stops them looking at anything but security says Giles and the same for the HVAC people. Everybody needs to get involved as any changes in design will have knock-on effects.

Each element will require its own checks and balances to ensure compliance and adherence, with a credible security policy embracing heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

Giles says that the company is already working on some new design concepts to integrate air quality and security systems. And for the first time, security systems could actually contribute to cost savings.

This is good news as the number of owners looking to protect themselves and their passengers is only likely to increase.