The following guidelines apply to insulation installation for the Deckhouse & Engine room of the ship.

Purpose
The purpose of this article is to instruct how to test whether the installation has been performed according to the standards and regulations in concern, by providing a testing standard to aid in satisfying the criteria requested by ship owners and ship registrations, as well also to maintain adequate product quality. To understand insulation grade/ or design concept on ship, you may visit this article: Fire Integrity On Ship.

CheckPoints Prior to Testing

 

 

1- Before installation, the pump spray must be inspected so that the pressure is 10 Bars; if less than this value, the pressure must be increased.

2- The condition of the surface and cleanliness must be checked before spraying; foreign matters (grease, oil, loose particles, etc.) should be removed completely before beginning.

3- The surface to be sprayed must be warmer than 4 degrees C; if insufficient, installation should be performed after the surface has been warmed.

4- The workers in charge of the spraying and correction must be certified with the certificate shown below; uncertified workers should not participate in the operation.

5- When spraying, the nozzle should be kept at a distance less than 500mm from the surface; if the distance is greater than 500mm, the area should be removed cleanly of the spray material and the spraying must be done over again.

Testing Criteria

Surface testing
– Surface roughness: The insulation wool protrusion roughness should be maximally identical. (Regulations for roughness not otherwise indicated)
– Surface roughness is influenced by padding and rolling (shown in photos below)

Surface hardness
Surface should feel hard, and the wool on surface should not fall off.
After insulation spraying, the surface must be sufficiently coated with binder (LPA) (=over spray).
If the amount of over spraying with binder (LPA) is insufficient, the surface does not harden, and the surface of the wool can become fuzzy when exposed to long periods of time and dust.

Surface contamination:

In case of surface contamination, the surface wool must be removed completely, then spraying must be done all over again.

Contamination occurs easily especially in the case of thermal (glass wool), due to its white color; Not only does it give a negative appearance, but the aluminum foil also does not adhere properly later on.

Thickness measurement criteria
– Measuring thickness of A60 insulation: Measure using thickness measurer offered by the manufacturer.
* Refer to drawing as the thickness of A60 insulation varies according to area.

– Measuring thickness of thermal insulation: Measure using thickness measurer offered by the manufacturer.

– According to the measurements, increase thickness of insufficient areas by respraying and reinforcing.

Note: The condition of insulation can be checked only after more than 72 hours have passed since over spraying with binder (LPA), when the surface has dried sufficiently. More than 2 weeks must pass for complete drying. (Time required for drying can differ according to location.)

Density testing
– Marking areas to be tested (size: 300mm x 300mm)
* original test size: 1000mm x 1000mm
– Measuring thickness (thickness should be measured at 5 locations at the least, and the values should be averaged.)

– Remove insulation where marked.
– Place removed insulation in prepared plastic bag
– Weigh insulation using prepared scale.
– Calculate density according to the measured weight and thickness.