South Shields based Solar Solve Marine recently shipped a consignment of 53 of their SOLASAFE anti-glare film blinds to the company’s distributor in South Korea that are destined for the currently un-named Large Car Truck Carrier (LCTC) Wallenius 4457, that is being built at the Daewoo shipyard in Okpo.
The vessels all have very similar dimensions and construction: 230mts long; 33mts beam; 18,700dwt; 71,580 grt; 8,000 cars capacity with 5 hoistable decks to allow for loading a variety of vehicles of varying heights. Their MAN B&W slow speed diesel engines develop 17,189 total HP; 12,643 kW, enabling a service speed of 19 knots.
This type of vessel has windows all round the wheelhouse and bridge control areas, 53 in total, which is a considerable number and they will all have SOLASAFE film blinds installed to reject glare, heat and uv radiation from the sun. The benefits of having the film blinds will be to make life a little easier, safer and less stressful for the crew.
John Lightfoot, chairman of Solar Solve said, “This new vessel is one of an ongoing series of the world’s biggest car carriers that were ordered by Swedish company Wallenius Lines for their Norwegian based Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Fleet. The first vessel, FAUST, was delivered in 2007 and is the subject of a very interesting documentary film in the ‘Mega ships’ series that I recently watched on TV. There are more ships in this series still on order and we expect further orders for them as a result.”
As well as being a navigation safety aid that enhances the crews’ quality of life, there is also a payback from air conditioning cost savings when the film blinds are in use and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
