One of the most overlooked aspects of maintaining the watertight integrity of any floating structure is ensuring the bulkheads are secure. It is therefore essential to be able to locate any leaks within the bulkhead itself. The most common source of issues is always found with the penetrations passing through the bulk head and in particular, with leaks in MCTs, cable trays, pipe penetrations and the wide variety of other non-opening structures which are used during construction.
- There are many applications onboard vessels in the maritime sector – both commercial and passenger types e.g. cruise liners, yachts
- and in offshore oil and gas support vessels and offshore installations like FPSOs, rigs, and
- naval warships and submarines etc.
Common areas include but not limited to the engine room, fire system areas, power supply, lighting supply, control rooms etc. Cable transits are necessary for compartment watertight integrity testing, for hazardous areas, for fire barrier integrity, sound proofing and more.
How can you check watertight seals in cable trays?
The problem with bulk head testing where the structure does not open is your options for testing are drastically reduced. Chalk testing is impossible, pressure testing is impractical and hose testing puts the vessel at risk.
Using ultrasound to measure leaks in bulkheads is much easier as you do not need to alter the strucutre in any way, normal operations can continue during testing and the testing is very quick and easy.
It is just as easy to test for leaks in pipe penetrations and all similar applications. To get an idea of how this equipment works, please see the link below:
It is a regulatory requirement to inspect MCTs. Read about this here: Comply with IACS Z28 – Survey of Watertight Cable Transits (MCTs) .Identify leaks in a wide variety of watertight, airtight or weather-tight seals such as hatch covers, doors and multiple cable transits, with decibel readouts to satisfy classification society requirements, using ABS Type Approved Portascanner® WATERTIGHT which is an award-winning handheld ultrasonic watertight integrity tester.
