For many years commercial shipping had checked the contents of highly-pressurised marine CO2 gaseous for extinguishing systems by dismantling and weighing each of the typically-600 45KG cylinders in the ships’ system, or by testing the cylinders in-situ with a radioactive liquid level indicator. The former could take several days whilst the latter was fast and efficient. The radioactive instrument however could not be easily transported due to IATA transportation restrictions, each operator had to be specifically licensed to be able to use radioactive equipment, the unit had to be stored securely and using a radioactive source was not environmental.
The primary reason for ships’ being lost at sea remains fire and sinking to this day. The reason CO2 contents are monitored is because the risk of accidental discharge and slow seepage, in the ships engine room or paint lockers that they protect, is life threatening to mariners if in the vicinity of a discharge and, if too much is lost, the design concentration cannot be made to extinguish a fire, aboard a ship at sea.
The company’s founder, Mr Eric Charlton Hunter, was a highly experienced, former Royal Naval Submariner who had specialised in acoustics and SONAR in the Royal Navy and the Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington, and had joined commercial shipping on his retirement from naval service, prior to establishing our Ultrasonics research company.
During a meeting with a Professor at the Harwell Laboratory of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Mr Hunter asked whether ultrasound could be used to detect the liquid-gaseous interface in CO2 cylinders, as a fast, highly accurate and clean, environmental means, to monitor marine CO2 systems. Encouraged by the response Mr Hunter began the development and manufacture of Portalevel ™, the world’s first portable ultrasonic liquid level indicator. Over the years this went into service with 12,000 ships, 20% of the world’s shipping fleet, and enabled the development of Portascanner™ an ultrasonic instrument to monitor the watertightness of ships’ holds, hatch covers and watertight compartment doors. The Portalevel® and Portascanner® are still at the foundation of Coltraco.
We are a twice-winning Queen’s Award for Enterprise company, exporting 90% of our manufactured output to 120 countries annually, and of numerous international safety at sea awards.
Our research institute, the Durham Institute of Research, Development and Invention, comprises 700 scientific, engineering and leadership Fellows and Visiting Fellows, at Professor and Associate Professor levels, from the leading UK Universities, and has a variety of specialised sub-units including the Centre for Underwater Acoustic Analysis (CUAA) as our “gift for the nation” and specifically the Royal Navy, the Centre for Strategic Electromagnetic Spectrum Research (CSEMSR) and the Strategic-Potential Artificial Intelligence Group (SPAIG).
Today Coltraco technologies are used in Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) around the world including at power generating and transmission companies, data centres, port authorities, alternative fuels and wind energy where, at one of them, we are a global top 30 supplier.
