UK universities making ships more fire safe

The universities of Bolton and Southampton have been awarded £775,000 ($1.17 million) by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to carry out this research.

The project, led by Bolton, begins in July and will run for 3.5 years. It aims to develop new resins, which will be less flammable than those currently used in the production large-scale composite materials, as well as to develop materials that will be lighter, do not corrode and cost less to produce than currently used materials.

These new composite materials will initially be developed for the ship’s superstructure. However, these could also find applications in other engineering arenas such as road, rail transportation and aeronautical applications.

The project has attracted collaborators from materials suppliers (Scott Bader), ship builders (BVF) and boat yards (BVT) to operators (RNLI and MoD/Dstl/Royal Navy) and involves regulators (Lloyd’s Register and MoD) and statutory agencies (Maritime Coastguard Agency).

Recorded shipping history lists dozens of vessels and thousands of lives lost to fire, as recently as 2004, for instance when Bow Mariner sank following an explosion killing 21 of its 27 crew.