Fireproof Bulkhead Seal at the SMM in Hamburg
A ‘breakthrough’ of a special kind is the world’s only fireproof bulkhead seal for drive shafts. This will be presented at SMM 2018 on the stand of the manufacturer, ProfiSeal.
To ensure that fireproof bulkheads are indeed entirely fireproof, the German specialist ProfiSeal has developed the world’s only fireproof bulkhead seal for drive shafts already two years ago. An ingenious piece of engineering makes sure, that a fire in the engine room cannot spread any further throughout the ship. In case of a fire, carbon dioxide is released inside the actual fitting, suffocating the fire at this point and so protecting the actual seal rings.
This now patented system was developed by the company founder, Hermann Aumüller, who retired in 2017. The company ProfiSeal GmbH, which was founded in 1995, was taken over by Dr.-Ing Tobias Müller as successor.
Type approval by IMO 2010 FTP Code, Part 3 und MSC85/26, Add. 1, Annex 22, this seal now also has type approvals by DNV-GL as well as the Korean Register. This type approval includes the entire range for shaft diameters from 50mm up to 500mm. A further type approval is currently being issued by Bureau Veritas.
In only 2 ½ years, this fireproof bulkhead seal has already been installed in nearly 20 new built ships, among them ferries (RoRo, RoPax), customs patrol vessels, transport ships of the oil and gas industry in the USA as well as, currently, in a river cruise ship in China. Propellershaft seals by ProfiSeal have been fitted to many yachts, for whom the fireproof version would of course also be very relevant to improve fire security on any yacht.