The Extreme Side of the Marine Industry

Of all industries, one which undeniably faces the most extreme conditions, and consequently necessitates the use of only the toughest equipment, is the marine industry.

Equipment on marine vessels can be at sea for long periods of time in very low temperatures, constantly exposed to a whole host of extreme weather conditions. What’s more, due to the crucial nature of many roles within the industry, new and innovative marine technology is constantly being developed to ensure these can be fulfilled as effectively as possible. To ensure this technology can perform under such critical conditions, certain measures have to be taken.

One of the most important aspects of tackling conditions with technology is having the right protective measures in place to ensure your technology’s endurance, which in turn enables it to continuously work in such extreme environments. To ensure your technology is protected, you’ll need the right equipment. Arguably one of the most effective methods is anti-vibration equipment, one of the most recent developments in marine technology, and which is causing big waves in marine industry news. Here, we’ll showcase exactly how anti-vibration equipment can fulfil your marine needs, and make sure your technology is able to perform in the harshest of conditions, plus the additional noise-cancelling benefits of this revolutionary equipment.

The Importance of Protecting Your Marine Technology

The most effective way to protect your marine technology, and ensure it has a lengthy lifespan, is undeniably through composite materials such as marine anti-vibration mounts.

Anti-vibration mounts are incredibly useful in the protection of the heavy machinery that comprises machine technology. This is due to the fact that mechanical vibration and shock loads are commonplace for most marine vessels, taking place in on-board engines and electronic devices.

In terms of isolation, marine mounts work in much the same way as any other anti-vibration mount. For repetitive vibration, they provide enough static deflection to isolate equipment against a vibration frequency profile. For shock loadings, the mounts must provide enough dynamic deflection in all directions without counteracting their ability to isolate against continuous vibration. Doing all of this, and at the same time providing fail-safe captivity is a key challenge for such equipment.

Another challenge of the marine application is the inherently harsh environment. Salt provides a notoriously difficult atmosphere for rubber and metal components. Customers often design with this in mind by enclosing components and thereby shielding them from the elements, but it is not always possible to eliminate this threat completely. On top of this, operating temperatures are often hard to regulate, sometimes resulting in extreme working temperatures.

Understanding the vibrations to isolate against is also a challenge. Ship-borne vibrations are complex and difficult to predict, and the low-frequency vibrations on large vessels and structures require more deflection from the parts which is harder to achieve.

All of these challenges require careful consideration of parts and materials to maximise component life. GMT has a vast experience of the marine environment and selects metals and blends of rubber to suit the application.

At GMT, we are experts in the field of vibration isolation for a range of industries, including marine. We offer a range of purpose-designed marine mounts, capable of high-deflections, and ideal for reducing transmitted shock loads to sensitive equipment. By utilising our anti-vibration products, you have complete quality assurance; crucial for such an intricate type of equipment, and important industry.

Multipurpose Equipment; the Need for Noise Reduction at Sea

The beauty of utilising vibration isolation equipment to sustain your marine technology is that you’ll also reap additional benefits; namely, through noise reduction. By reducing mechanical vibration and shock loads, the noise output of your marine technology will also substantially decrease. In accordance with the Mandatory Code on Noise Levels on Board Ships, which explicitly states the ‘need to establish mandatory noise level limits for machinery spaces, control rooms, workshops, accommodation and other spaces on board ships’, the importance of noise reduction on board marine vessels cannot be emphasised enough.

In the modern age there exists an increasing demand for faster and more efficient marine propulsion systems, of both passenger and freight vessels, which the continuous rise of online shopping and expectancy for fast shipping has only enhanced. Lowered noise is necessary for quicker transportation, research into which is growing, and has given rise to the use of mounting and isolation systems.

The reasoning behind these controlled noise levels is sevenfold. Alongside the obvious protection of marine life, the code discusses how reducing seafarers’ exposure to noise is necessary to ‘prevent noise-induced hearing loss’, maintain safe working conditions, ensure all alarms can be heard, and enable all seafarers to effectively communicate with one another. Altogether this creates an environment where ‘clear-headed decisions can be made’; crucial given the circumstances.

The Growth of Reducing Noise Levels with Vibration-Isolation Equipment

With such powerful machinery in place, keeping noise to the required levels can be quite the challenge. However, with vibration solutions such as marine mounts, you can guarantee your machinery’s longevity whilst also addressing this smaller, albeit nonetheless significant, concern.

The growing trend of tackling noise levels with anti-vibration equipment has been recognised by the Global Marine Technology Trends 2030, which predicts ‘next-generation resilient mount materials will be explored (in the next 10+ years) to actively reduce the noise and vibration released from machinery’. With vibration isolation clearly recognised as a solution set to substantially grow by the report, acquiring this technology now with the primary focus of tackling maintenance and longevity issues creates an increasingly beneficial situation.

Indeed, the Mandatory Code itself (section 10.1-10.3), states that ‘machines should be supported on carefully selected resilient mountings’, and that where structure-borne sound produces unacceptable noise levels, use of resilient mountings should be considered’.

To recap, with extremely innovative and tough equipment used so frequently and for such major tasks within the marine industry, looking after equipment is pivotal. Anti-vibration equipment has proven to be the best solution, not only protecting marine machinery’s lifespan, but reducing noise to comply with the mandatory code regarding board ships noise levels. With this set to be a large trend in the not too distant future, get on board now with anti-vibration equipment.

For more information on vibration isolation equipment for the marine industry, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team, and we’ll gladly discuss your vibration solution needs further. You can also view our step by step guide to choosing anti-vibration mounts, for further clarification.