Shipbuilding

Cable solutions and services for safety and efficiency in ships

Today’s shipbuilding environment continues to face a number of challenges in terms of safety, operational efficiency and passenger experience, all of which are dependent on high-performance cable solutions and customized services.

The first is the necessity to improve both fire safety and for cables the reliability of electrical systems on board in line with regulation evolution. There is also a pressing need to improve operational efficiency, flexibility and lightness for the shipyards. Finally, there is a call for richer, more comfortable and satisfying passenger travel experience for the cruise industry.

Safety on board

Fire can be devastating on a ship, particularly on a passenger ship, where large numbers of people may need to be evacuated, or cared for before help arrives. It is also of concern to ships carrying finished consumer products or highly inflammable cargo, posing serious risks to crewmembers, or ports and harbors.

Given the autonomous floating environment, safety must be self-contained and omnipresent to ensure outstanding survival characteristics which depend on cables. The ship’s power comes from half a dozen marine diesel-generating sets, which provide electricity for lights, elevators, electronics, galleys, water treatment, and other vital systems, including survival, evacuation and propulsion. All of these systems require reliable cables.

In addition, ships must also operate safely according to the “flooding threshold,” allowing for evacuation, or Safe Return to Port. Following the loss of any one watertight compartment, it must have propulsion, steering, navigation, communications, pumps, and bilge and ballast systems for damage control and basic services.

Nexans SHIPLINK® fire resistant MPRXCX ® 331  or TCX ® 331 cables meet the challenge by providing a number of fire-end multi-operational solutions.

Flexibility, lightness and operational efficiency

As autonomous floating environments, ships of all kinds have to provide numerous functions that have less to do with other types of transportation, than with stable habitats. This requires hundreds of onboard systems for power, communication and control, which depend on an invisible network of cables hidden within the vessels superstructure.

The design parameters of a ship present a special installation challenge. Ship structures are becoming larger, longer, and wider. Cable installation can be an expensive, labor intensive and injury-prone operation. That is why since space is scarce and weight is an operational concern, cables need to be as small and light as possible.

To meet rising construction and modernization costs, Nexans has developed a full range of Power MPRX ® and MPRXCX FLEXISHIP® cables which offer flexibility, bendability, strippability and pulling ease to facilitate installation.

Passenger cruise experience

Beyond safety and efficiency concerns, ships include a number of innovations to make the passenger traveling experience more comfortable and convenient.

Apart from operational infrastructure, these ships boast gadgets to enliven the travel experience: like bionic bartenders, wall-to-wall touch screens, fast Wi-Fi, and “sea view” filmed in real time and projected onto high-definition screens the size of balcony windows.

All of these diverse service offerings depend on high-performance Ethernet cable solutions, components, co-engineering and services drawing on Nexans’ long-established marine experience.