Intelligent Engineering hails class rules that will allow sandwich plate system soon.

(From Lloyds List)

Byline: Design strengthens decks and makes landing craft bow doors bullet-proof, writes Hugh O'Mahony

INTELLIGENT Engineering, the company behind the sandwich plate system for ships' structures, has said that classification rules that will enable its innovative metal outer plates plus solid elastomer core technology to be considered by shipbuilders at the earliest stages of design will be ready by the first quarter of 2005.

IE overlay director Denis Welch said that Lloyd's Register was formulating design assessment rules for a technology that has already been used in more than 30 projects, and that they were expected to be in draft form by early next year. They would allow designers to work towards an established standard for material strength, he said.

Mr Welch said that around 30 sq km of SPS material, equivalent to 3,500 tonnes, was now fitted aboard oceangoing ships.

Recent activities have seen uptake from a growing base of clients, with the way in which SPS enables repairers to replace and upgrade deck sections by overlaying replacement sections without having to remove the existing structure continuing to be the engine for growth.

In March, the 750 sq m of deck aboard the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry Isle of Arran at Garvel Clyde was upgraded to carry two axle lorries with loads of up to 14 tonnes per axle using the approach, while a first job in the Mediterranean saw the reinstatement of deck aboard the Eurolineas Maritimas ro-ro ship Bahia de Malaga at Izar's Cartagena yard.