Marine watertight doors are available in aluminum, steel or a combination of these metals meeting IMO, SOLAS requirements. It can be opened and closed quickly and lightly. It is used for bulkheads with water tightness requirements. It can prevent the ingress of water from one compartment to another during flooding or accidents and therefore act as a safety barrier.
It limits the spread of water inside the vessel. These doors are used onboard in many ships such as in the fore and aft passageways underdeck and in engine room bulkheads leading to shaft tunnels in container vessels, large passenger ships, offshore vessels, oil exploration vessels.
They are used in areas where the chances of flooding are high. Areas such as engine room compartments and shaft tunnel and some of such places.
Therefore it is important that crew members are familiar with the system as well as the location of different powered watertight doors aboard the ship.
Watertight as defined in SOLAS is: capable of preventing the passage of water in any direction under the head of water likely to occur in intact and damaged conditions.
Weathertight is defined as that in any sea conditions water will not penetrate the ship.
To make it simpler, a watertight door can prevent the passage of water in both directions when subjected to ahead of water i.e it can withstand water pressure from both sides. They are designed to withstand continuous submersion and are therefore located below the waterline like shaft tunnels, ballast tanks, bow thruster compartments, etc. all openings below the waterline have to be watertight.
Watertight Doors Drill on Ships
1. Drills for the operation of watertight doors shall take place every week. Also, the doors should be checked before leaving the port.
2. All watertight doors, both hinged and power operated should be operated daily during the rounds.
3. The door should be able to operate from both local and remote places. i.e. bridge and ship control center.
4. If the door is operated from a remote location, there should be an audio and visual alarm during the closing
5. There should be an indication of both open and close on the remote place of operation.
Maintenance of Watertight Doors
The ship’s planned maintenance system must be followed for carrying out routine inspection and maintenance on watertight doors which should include the correct functioning of the whole system and specifically:
Warning devices and alarms
The electric/hydraulic mechanism
Valves
Fluid level indicators
Seals
Lights
All marine watertight doors provided by YSmarines have the certificate of GL- DNV, CCS, BV, ABS, LR, KR, RS, etc with customized sizes and colors, superior quality. For more detailed information, please visit the official site of ysmarines.com.
