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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) developed a system it says is de- signed to enhance the damage stability ofships, a system which the company claims reduces capsizing risk, and a sys-tem which has now been ordered for in- stallation on a Nippon Shipping, a groupcompany of Nippon Express Co., Ltd., RoRo ship. MHI proprietarily developed the sys- tem in response to the strengthening ofregulations on ship stability during navi- gation in January 2009, based on revi- sions to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS Con-vention) adopted at a meeting of the In- ternational Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1974. Going forward MHI will focus on mar- keting activities to attract orders for high- end ships equipped with the new system. At the same time, the company will also boost external provision of its environ- ment-related technologies for such shipsin a quest to expand its engineering busi- ness.MHI is targeting installation of its newly patented righting moment recov- ery system on new ships to which the aforementioned regulations apply: namely, RoRo ships, pure car and truck carriers (PCTC) and ferries. With such ships in mind, MHI devel- oped the system with an emphasis on low cost. If the ship's hull is damaged duringnavigation, the new system enables prompt conveyance of any flooded sea- water into void spaces in the ship's bot- tom, helping to reduce capsizing risk byquickly lowering the ship's center of gravity. MHI's system is designed to secure thevoid spaces near the ship's bottom by making use of spaces that are normallyallocated to other functions, such as thefin stabilizer rooms, duct keels and bal- last water tanks. Holes and watertight covers are pro- vided to feed the seawater into the void spaces, and pipes are in place to serve as air vents. Together the system is designed to enable prompt water filling and lower- ing of the gravity center to cope with emergencies. The system is designed to eliminate the need to divide the vehicle deck areas into small compartments, ulti-mately facilitating smoother vehicle ma- neuvering within the ship. Also, and important for the cost-effectiveness of the vessel, no vehicle carrying capacity is sacrificed as a result of the new regula- tions.The 170-m RoRo on order is able totravel at a speed of 23 knots, carrying about 170 trailer chassis and 100 passen-ger cars. The ship consumes approxi- mately 10% less fuel than existing RoRo ships in the same class, and will be built at MHI's Shimonoseki Shipyard & Ma- chinery Works in Shimonoseki City, Ya- maguchi Prefecture, scheduled fordelivery in March 2013. In part to battle the continued loss ofmarket share to Korea and China, and particularly in today?s tough global mar- itime market, the move by MHI is seen as a move to focus on specialized high- end products; and a strengthening of en-gineering business. In conjunction, effective January 1, 2012, MHI estab- lished a new "Engineering Business De- partment" within its Shipbuilding & Ocean Development business headquar- ters.Two promising technologies in particu- lar are expected to contribute to expan- sion of the company's engineering business. One is the "Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System (MALS)," an innovation that re- duces frictional resistance between a ves- sel's hull and seawater using air bubbles produced at the vessel bottom, thereby enabling energy savings and reduction in CO2 emissions. The other is a proprietary technologyfor vessels equipped with a ballast water treatment system to comply with the Bal-last Water Management Convention, an international agreement requiring instal-lation of a system to purify ballast water prior to its discharge from the ship. Leveraging these and other advanced technologies, MHI is now actively pro- moting its engineering business for both new ships and conversion of existing ships.http://www.mhi.co.jp March 2012 www.marinelink.com 85TECHNICALNew System to Enhance Damage Stability of Ships MR March 12 # 11 (81-88):MR Template 3/6/2012 1:25 PM Page 85