SIZE, simplicity, weight and maintenance services are the four main areas that manufacturers and operators have got their eyes on in the MES and liferaft sector.
SIZE, simplicity, weight and maintenance services are the four main areas that manufacturers and operators have got their eyes on in the MES and liferaft sector.
The latter has arguably undergone the most change recently, on account of the evolution in the way that liferaft equipment strategy is managed. There has been a greater move to hire liferafts, and – in some cases – for time between servicing to be drawn out from 12 to 30 months. Liferaft distributor and manufacturer Survitec is embracing both trends. In September last year, it launched a global liferaft hire product in Europe, then made it a global programme by extending it to all 580 of its partner service stations around the world. Carnival is one of Survitec’s cruise clients that has decided to hire the majority of its liferafts.
Survitec head of marketing and communications Rachel Rotrou explained why hiring liferafts has become more common among passenger ship operators: “It is a different way of procuring equipment and is symptomatic of the economy. It means the operators don’t have to invest capital up front, and it gives them flexibility. We charge a fixed annual fee, which gives them predictability of costs. The fee includes service and necessary spare parts.”
Reducing the administrative burden is another reason why hiring liferafts is an attractive option for companies. Ms Rotrou singled out shipmanagement companies as being particularly attracted by this aspect. “Companies are increasingly outsourcing their non-core activities, and that is where we come in. Shipmanagement companies like V.Ships and Bernhard Schulte manage huge fleets, and one thing they look at is reducing administration and operational complexity. That could involve hiring lifesaving equipment rather than buying it.”
Ms Rotrou added that although buying liferafts was still more popular than hiring them, she thought that the “ratio would probably shift the other way.” She explained: “It is a new concept so companies will probably start small in hiring and then increase it. We do think it’s a growing trend, which is why we extended our hire programme with a global launch last year.”
Indeed, Ms Rotrou thinks hiring liferafts is part of a broader trend of ship operators being keen for a “one stop shop” when it comes to buying and managing their safety equipment. “Customers want us to put a package together for them covering a broad portfolio of safety products. They want us to manage their evacuation services, such as reminding them when their maintenance renewal is due, and they are increasingly looking for help training staff. They don’t just want the product but all the elements that go around it – the one stop shop.” She highlighted benefits, which include saving time and money because just one point of contact is dealt with, rather than multiple companies.
Ms Rotrou indicated that the trend of providing a one stop shop was indicative of where the liferaft industry is going. It is becoming more consolidated, with larger companies that are able to offer a wide range of safety/survival equipment and associated services, rather than just purely liferafts.
Survitec’s hire liferaft make clear a second major trend: service maintenance on them only needs to be carried out every 30 months, rather than annually, saving time and money. Every 12 months, onboard crew members are required to do a manual inspection of the equipment, which involves plugging a USB stick into the raft container that measures moisture and CO2 levels. If both are given the green light, and the raft passes a further visual check, inspection ends at that point for a year or until the 30-month service is due. Survitec trains crew members to carry out this manual testing.
Brude Safety technical manager Stein Frode Bulling-Ness also believes that extended service intervals will become a greater part of the evacuation market. “I would not be surprised if extended service is applied to other applications. We already have extended service periods for liferafts, but MES are still serviced annually. But extended service periods will come to these products: we have the technology to ensure that they only need maintenance every 30 months. Now we just need to get acceptance from the authorities.”
Another common theme running through the latest evacuation system installations is the demand for ease of use and simplicity. Liferaft Systems Australia (LSA) is providing MES systems for four ferries being built by Fiskerstrand Verft shipyard in Norway for Boreal Transport Nord. LSA is providing a total of two MES and two additional liferafts (which are linked to the MES) for each of these double-ended LNG-powered ferries. The vessels, due to be put into service in the Helgeland region of northern Norway, are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The Norwegian operator selected LSA for two main reasons. The first reason was that LSA has already supplied the majority of Boreal’s fleet with MES and liferafts, and the second was the ease of use of the systems.
“The operator very much likes our system because of its simplicity,” LSA European manager Peter Rea confirmed. “The operator tries to operate with the minimum number of crew possible, and our system enables them to do that because of the simplicity of the system. There are no electronics, hydraulics or winches.” He said that an LSA slide and liferaft can easily be operated by just one crew member.
Making the system as simple as possible is also an important consideration for Viking Life-Saving Equipment. Executive director Henrik Uhd Christensen said: “We have taken out the complexity, and the number of operations has been reduced to a minimum. You simply have to pull one handle to release the evacuation system.” Reducing complexity is an ongoing process, and the company is looking at next-generation evacuation system concepts. While Mr Uhd Christensen said that he could not be too specific, making systems simple was an “ongoing concern.” “Evacuation often involves panic and people not thinking logically. So if you take out complexity, you offer people the best opportunity to be evacuated from the vessel,” he said.
Indeed, Mr Uhd Christensen indicated that a driving force for simplicity was that human error is a “very big contributor” to accidents. Not only did this mean reducing the complexity of products, but increasing crew training, too. He singled out the upcoming Solas convention STCW, which has new requirements for crew training in areas including evacuation systems. “Operators will have to update training and document that their crew have received relevant training. There is no point having the best product in the world if crew members do not know how to operate it,” said Mr Uhd Christensen.
Simplicity and ease of use is behind Viking’s development of a light-based signal system that was launched a few years ago, and made available for larger capacity chutes and rafts in February. Emulating traffic lights, a red light signals that a passenger needs to wait before proceeding down the chute, while a green light is the symbol that he or she can go. This allows crew to easily follow the progress of passengers down the chute, and makes it easier for passengers to follow evacuation procedures. Mr Uhd Christensen added: “You need to bear in mind that whoever takes that step into the chute is probably doing it for the first time. They need to feel confident enough to enter the system. Our system gives that confidence: everybody knows that green means go and red means no. So people are instantly comfortable with the system. It manages the process as fast and safely as possible. If there is not a real clear sign of when to go other than crew saying so, people can react differently: some go straight away, others hesitate. Everyone knows a traffic system.”
Simplicity of use was also the theme when Brude Safety recently supplied Norwegian ferry operator Torghatten Nord with its new 150-person reversible canopy liferafts for a series of four domestic ferries. Four liferafts were supplied to each ferry. Mr Bulling-Ness said that he believed that one of the main reasons the product was chosen was ease of use. “It is a simple system, dependent only on manual power and gravity. With fewer components, the system is less likely to fail. Our philosophy is simplicity. One man should be able to do it with his own hands.”
Torghatten Nord is the first operator to use Brude’s 150-person reversible canopy liferaft, which was developed in 2010. As well as being simple to use, it is flexible, as it comes with a roof on each side. “Sometimes there can be heavy weather and things can happen: for example, it might inflate upside down. But by having a roof on both sides, it will still be fully functional,” explained Mr Bulling-Ness.
Highlighting the continuing trend for higher capacity liferafts, the company has just had approved a new canopied reversible liferaft series for 225 people. The design is complete and approval is pending. Mr Bulling-Ness explained that the system would be approved once the company made its first sale of the product. Before this model, a 150-person liferaft was the company’s largest. Mr Bulling-Ness said: “We decided on a capacity of 225 because we have a chute that is able to take 450 people in the 30 minutes’ benchmark, and 225 is half of 450.”
The chute is larger than normal, and another benefit is that it is capable of taking down two people side-by-side. “That makes it very easy to help older or disabled people down. Trained crew are able to go back up the chute again to help anyone who needs assistance,” he said. “This shows we are thinking above and beyond the basic requirements for evacuation systems.”
Survitec is also capitalising on the trend for larger liferafts. Responding to the building of ever larger cruise ships, last year it increased the capacity of its RFD Marin ARK2 from 632 to 860 passengers. The drive for larger lifeboats and larger MES was driven by the industry, with the early adopters of these new technologies including Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Epic and Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis-class vessels. Survitec said that this makes it the only MES globally that is certified to safely evacuate 860 people in less than 30 minutes. The product meets all IMO/Solas requirements, and received class approval from Lloyd’s Register.
The product has now been installed on Royal Princess, which was built by Fincantieri, and on one of two newbuilds from the Meyer Werft shipyard, Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Norwegian Breakaway. It was also added to RCI Solstice and Reflection vessels. Other vessels adopting the additional capacity MES option include Viking Grace, Cotunav Tanit, Bluestar Delos and Patmos.
Ms Rotrou suggested that the move towards larger liferafts for their increased functionality and reduced reliance on crew involvement meant that they would become more in demand than lifeboats. She explained: “A cruise ship is keen to optimise passenger safety while being able to release deck space for commercial use rather than storage of equipment, which is why the larger capacity liferaft is attractive. I believe that the trend will be to have the minimum requirement of lifeboats and supplement them with liferafts, which take up much less space.”
As well as reducing space taken up by equipment, operators are keen for their MES systems to be as light as possible, in order to save fuel costs. LSA managing director Mike Grainger said: “Ferry operators understand that with fuel costs so high, weight is of paramount concern. The heavier the equipment, the less freight or fewer passengers they can carry, or the less speed the vessels can do due to the deadweight.”
LSA has ensured that its equipment is light, with a medium-length slide and attached 100-person self-righting liferaft (the complete MES) weighing less than 900kg. This is the main reason why the company’s equipment was selected by Incat for Buquebus’ new LNG-powered high speed ferry Lopez Mena. Four 17m-slide MES systems and an additional five open reversible liferafts, each with capacity for 128 people, have been installed. The total liferaft capacity on Buquebus’ vessel is 1,152 people and the complete system weighs just 6,210kg. “They liked the fact that our equipment is the lightest, plus we have a long association with Incat,” Mr Grainger said.
Light weight is also a priority for Brude Safety, which is working on adapting its MES systems to better suit high speed craft. “High speed craft want much lighter systems, even if the startup costs are more. This is because fuel costs are higher for high speed ferries than for regular speed ferries,” explained Mr Bulling-Ness. “We provide high speed craft with MES systems at present, but want to make things lighter because lighter equals fuel savings.” The company is in talks with a fast ferry operator and is aiming to reduce weight by about 20 per cent compared with its current offering.
Norway increases evacuation system redundancy
The Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) tightened up its passenger vessel rescue requirements earlier this year. It decreed that where two or more liferafts have common components that may disable the entire evacuation system in the event of a single-point error, then ship must account for the loss of those units by installing units elsewhere.
The NMA said in its circular that examples of this could include a common release line for two or more liferafts, or where two liferafts are packed in one container. It states that a “sufficient number of survival craft [lifeboat, rescue boat or liferaft] has to be carried in order to ensure that in the event of any one survival craft being lost or rendered unserviceable, the remaining survival craft can accommodate the total number of persons the ship is certified to carry”.
This guideline amendment is only in Norway so far, but as LSA European manager Peter Rea commented: “In our opinion, this amendment will most likely be adopted by other countries – other countries will certainly take note.”
LSA managing director Mike Grainger said: “We believe that this is a really smart way of thinking because it will increase the redundancy of MES systems, which in turn will enhance the overall safety of the vessel.” He pointed out that LSA have always installed liferafts in separate containers to increase redundancy. PST
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