Nadiro – A new concept for lifeboat safety
Ensuring that lifeboats actually save lives: the full redesign of an outdated lifeboat system
Statistics indicate that lifeboats have cost more lives during training drills than they saved during actual rescue situations. The hook release system, which attaches the boats to the wire and winch that lowers them into the water, is the cause of about 80% of these accidents. As a consequence, seafarers have –understandably- become afraid to operate and test lifeboat equipment as required.
With the introduction of an entirely new lifeboat concept, it is intended enhance safety and thus reduce the number of accidents when a lifeboat is lowered into the sea and during its maintenance.
For more than 30 years, the lifeboat system used until this day has not been revised, so it was about time to make fundamental changes focussing on on a number of design issues crucial for a successful redesign such as the winch and braking system, launching davit and hooks.
The new lifeboat system has a specially developed drop-in ball system to prevent incidents. This system is patented and the most important development within the conventional lifeboat industry for the past 30 years. Together with the remote control for lowering and hoisting of lifeboats, this represents the greatest enhancement in the lifeboat operation safety history. “These features have never been seen before and they will improve safety radically when implemented,” the inventor Bent Nielsen from Maersk FPSOs and Drilling says.
The lifeboat project goes full scale: Nadiro established as a joint venture
The prototype of the new system was presented to the International Maritime Organisation at the Maritime Safety Committee in London in May ’09 and was received very positively whereupon it was decided to form a joint venture called Nadiro
Today, the product portfolio consists of full lifesaving systems with capacity ranging from 40 persons systems used on board merchant ships, 60-80 person systems for offshore units, and larger systems designed for special projects or passenger ships. Apart from being able to deliver complete lifesaving system solutions Nadiro also offers the unique winch and brake system and the drop in ball solution separately if requested. Nadiro already has received the first orders and is running successfully.