Since the Finnish company’s founding in 1985, Marioff has been quite a success story. In 1991 its key water mist product, HI-FOG, was launched and became something of a trailblazer in the marine safety sector leading to the prestigious Seatrade Safety at Sea award in 1992. Three years later the company received the Innovation in Finland award, and then the Finnish Export award in 1999. Today, the company is launching a new HI-FOG solution for Ro-Ro spaces and “special category” spaces to the marine market.
Svend Videbæk of Marioff explains how HI-FOG and the marine market have been connected from the very beginning – Marioff was the first company to see the marine application potential, especially on large cruise liners.

“New IMO regulations had made sprinklers mandatory. The problem was that conventional water-based systems required large amounts of water to fight fire and water is heavy. Ship-builders needed a system that was as light as possible, as a combined total of the weight of the system itself and the weight of the water in the pipes. They also needed a system that was explicitly designed for ships and easy to install, provided by a company that was eager to meet their specific needs with regard to everything including installation schedules. Marioff was that company.”

Marioff’s water mist technology, which uses much less water than conventional sprinkler systems, did not present a weight problem and began to gain acceptance after extensive full-scale testing. Within a few years many of the main ship builders were installing it. “Our system has now been tested over 6,000 times in full-scale fire tests for both marine and land-based applications. This is one of our great strengths. Because we were the first to commercialize water mist technology, we had to prove it works to customers who would often come and witness the tests for themselves.”

The latest HI-FOG solution has been approved by safety classification companies such as Det Norske Veritas (DNV) based on compliance with the relevant International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulations. “The IMO regulations dealing with water mist for Ro-Ro spaces changed recently, such that we could begin to develop this new solution.”

So why is this such big news for Ro-Ro? Videbæk explains that up to now CO2, foam and water drencher systems have been used – each of which has known disadvantages. CO2, for one, is lethal to people and because openings to Ro-Ro spaces must be closed and people evacuated before a CO2 system can be activated, explains Videbæk, a dangerous delay can result. “Then there are foam systems which do the job of fire suppression well, but the fact is that foam can be very corrosive to metal.”

Water drencher systems use large amounts of water which, when free-flowing on deck, can cause stability problems on the ship. “Also, liquid fires sit on top of the water and can be spread when it runs free.”

Videbæk is keen to emphasise, however, that when it comes to fire fighting in general, the most important thing is that there is a fixed fire protection system in place to deal with fire. The aim, after all, is to protect life, property and business continuity.

“That said, we make a strong case in Ro-Ro spaces that HI-FOG uses much less water than water drencher systems so there are no stability problems, and because it’s water mist there is no accumulation of sheet water on the deck. Furthermore, HI-FOG can be activated immediately upon fire detection, there’s no need to evacuate the protected area first. Lastly, because we use fresh water there’s no risk of corrosion to the bodywork of vehicles and ship equipment.”

With Ro-Ro ship-building currently experiencing something of a boom, Videbæk believes there’s going to be serious interest in HI-FOG. “We have an excellent track record of HI-FOG installation on marine vessels. Our technology is known and appreciated for the fire protection of accommodation and machinery spaces. Now it’s available for Ro-Ro and special category spaces. I think ship operators with substantial Ro-Ro business to protect will be interested.”

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