News item

Cost reduction through modified naval EMC regulation

The proposal from the workgroup “EMC for future ships” to modify the Lloyd’s Naval Rules with respect to EMC has been accepted and will be implemented January 2017. Partners of RH Marine in this workgroup are: Damen, Thales, DMO, Lloyd’s Register and University of Twente. The intention of this proposal is to reduce EMC related costs by applying a risk-based approach combined with smart installation methods. This approach stimulates the cooperation between shipowner, yard and subcontractors, leading to better ships.

Risk based approach

EMC stands for Electromagnetic compatibility, meaning that equipment won’t be interfered by phenomena such as radiofrequency fields and switching transients. Neither may the equipment cause such levels of interference that other equipment suffers from this disturbance. Complying with these regulations is often experienced as a challenge, for all markets.

Wider selection of equipment

Until now, the Lloyd’s Naval rules offer two options to deal with EMC. One option requires the application of equipment that complies with the maritime EMC standard IEC60533 (which is hardly available on the market); the other requires use of equipment that complies with an appropriate naval standard, MIL-SPEC (expensive and possibly outdated).

Neither of the two options considers that even when equipment complies with the standard it is still possible that interaction between equipment can cause interference. The new option, which can be used from the beginning of next year, is that a risk based approach is followed. This enables a more flexible selection of equipment, as long as the combination proves not to cause interference or to suffer from disturbance.

Setting the standard

RH Marine is an innovative system integrator with worldwide leading EMC knowledge and in-field experts. RH Marine is completely ready to work according to this new option and advise you about the practical implications of this new regulation. The improved standard enables electrical system integrators with sufficient EMC knowledge to deliver reliable, up to date and easy to maintain installations for the right price.

This is a perfect example of RH Marine applying its in-depth EMC knowledge on a system level to improve the industry standard for the vessels of the future. RH Marine’s philosophy is to optimise the vessel as a whole for its mission, instead of optimizing individual components.