Feature Enclosures Plain sailing for liner construction
Spelsberg UK is to provide a range of enclosure products that meet demanding marine specifications, to one of the largest passenger ships in the world, which is currently under construction and will be launched in 2016
nce completed the luxury pas- senger ship will have cost over $1,000m to build and will be over 300m in length. Thanks to its size it will carry over 6,000 passen- gers and 1,200 crew members, and will require 2,700 cabins and 28 suites as well as restaurants, night clubs, swim- ming pools and theme parks. The ship builder has developed a modular design for the cabins which will be built separately and then installed on the vessel according to the build plan. This saves on overall con- struction time as, with such a huge number of cabins to be built, it is better that this process is completed off-site. Each cabin can be individu- ally specified, if necessary, and each one is built to the same exacting stan- dards required for marine operation. In order to achieve the target build cost, it is important to design common systems and components where possi- ble and so achieve economies of scale. The process begins with an initial pro- totype which has to be validated by the client before mass production can begin. By using a small group of skilled craftsmen to design and build the cabins, the quality and reliability can be carefully monitored and maintained.
O Customisation
The design of the cabins requires electri- cal distribution combined with an enclo- sure, which can be modified and installed to meet individual require- ments. The enclosures will be required to have an IP65 rating as a minimum, with those being used in areas other than
the accommodation specified to IP66. With many enclosures requiring cus- tomisation, it is essential that the IP rat- ings are maintained once the enclosures have been machined and installed. The electrical distribution will also be required across the rest of the vessel for lighting and small power. In many cases the distribution on one deck will be repeated on the next, so for a vessel with 16 passenger decks there will be a requirement for a large number of enclo- sures, all of which will have to meet par- ticular marine approvals, such as Lloyds Register or Bureau Veritas. To make the installation work as effi-
ciently as possible, the proposal is to use enclosures which have been pre-fabri- cated to include terminals and glands. In this way, the time consuming exercise of building the enclosures can be com- pleted prior to arrival at the shipyard, and thereby reducing the amount of time required to install the electrical systems. With such a large number of enclo-
sures required (around 4,000 just for the cabins), combined with the customisa- tion and pre-wiring requirements, the ship builder has enlisted Spelsberg UK to provide a complete range of products that can be delivered to suit the build schedule. Spelsberg also offers complete customisation on nearly all of its prod- ucts as well as in-house installation.
Surviving the seven seas A spokesman for the ship builder com- mented, “In order to provide adequate protection to electrical connections, the enclosures which are to be used on this project need to be extremely tough.
Electrical Engineering FEBRUARY 2014
Below: in all, there will be approximately 4,000 enclosures destined for the cabins alone
Being a maritime application it is important that the enclosures provide suitable ingress protection while also offering corrosion resistance from the abrasive salt particles present in the water and the air.
“Spelsberg worked with us to provide enclosure solutions when we had designed the enclosures to fully under- stand our requirements. They are carry- ing out the customisation and installation work in-house which means we don’t have to worry about multiple suppliers and know that the supplied product will match out design specification.” The project will
see each cabin
equipped with an IP65 distribution board from the AK range, which con- tains a choice of boards from 14 to 70 way, constructed from either poly- styrene or polycarbonate. Combined with the extensive range of accessories and screwless PE and N terminals, these enclosures are designed to offer a robust, reliable and efficient installation, which can be modified to suit each application. In all, there will be approximately 4,000 enclosures destined for the cabins, where they will be built into the fabric of each cabin before it is transported to the shipyard to be assembled. There will also be a large number of enclosures from the AL range, which comprises a variety of aluminium, powder coated enclo- sures, rated to IP66, as well as a quantity of TK enclosures, also IP66 rated, equipped with terminals and glands.
Spelsberg UK
www.spelsberg.co.uk T: 01952 605 849
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