Ensuring the successful sea trial of the novel Viking LifeCraft™ System

Deployment and testing of the Viking LifeCraft™ during the mandatory sea trial tests, in which significant wave height is larger than 3 m. © VIKING Life-Saving Equipment A/S

VIKING Life-Saving Equipment A/S developed the novel LifeCraft™– a hybrid lifeboat/liferaft solution. Before it could be used on passenger and cruise ships, the LifeCraft™ had to pass expensive sea trials. VIKING came to us to conduct physical model testing of the LifeCraft™ in our offshore wave tank to make sure they were successful the first time. Working with our engineers and technicians, VIKING’s engineers used our recommendations and the data from the tests to improve the design of the LifeCraft™. This ensured that it passed the sea trial, helping VIKING save time and money.

Viking LifeCraftTM has officially been approved as a Novel Life-Saving Appliance by the Danish Maritime Authority (DMA), meeting the requirements for replacing conventional lifeboats on passenger ships and advancing progress toward greater safety in large-scale ship evacuation emergencies.

Results:

• Our physical model tests pinpointed issues that VIKING had not considered before
• With this information, VIKING could rapidly modify and test design improvements
• The physical model tests eventually sped up the entire process towards authority approval

Read our case story to know more.

‘We are proud that our new and innovative LifeCraft™ Survival System has now officially passed the sea trials. The physical model test we did in DHI’s wave tank was extremely helpful during the design process and saved us time and money.’

-Jens Nielsen, Senior R&D Engineer, Viking Life-Saving Equipment A/S, Denmark