Controlling welding fume and grinding dust during a major refurbishment of an Amphibious Assault Ship

Project Overview

This project was based on one of the Royal Navy's Albion class amphibious assault ships, a vessel designed to land Royal Marines and their equipment, including trucks and tanks, ashore by air and sea. With a major refurbishment ahead, ensuring the safety of everyone working on board was paramount.

Challenge

The ship was due to undergo a major refurbishment which would include a lot of welding, cutting and grinding activities. Whilst the customer had actively put control measures in place to minimise exposure to hazardous fume and dust, and to ensure adequate air quality inside the work zones, they were struggling to achieve velocities required in accordance with HSG258, particularly for grinding dust. The initial extraction system in place was large in size and had to be placed outside of the vessel. It was not able to maintain a high enough pressure over long duct runs to extract from machinery spaces and tanks deep inside the vessel.

The customer identified that a more specialist and high pressure extraction system was required in order to ensure the safety of everyone nearby. The new solution would ideally be situated inside the ship, with the ability to reach multiple extraction locations. They reached out to RVT Group, a long-standing provider of specialist hazard control solutions across the dockyard, for a bespoke solution.

Solution

RAVEX® Wandafilta Plus Kits were installed with VENTEX® 200S HP Centrifugal fans and twin VENTEX® 300M centrifugal fans to extract dust and fume at the source.

We filtered to H14 (HEPA) standard which captures an impressive 99.99% of 0.3-micrometer air particles, meaning that out of 1,000,000 particles, only 10 will not be captured.

The extraction hoses (100mm and 80mm diameter) ran up to 60m and were fitted with suitable capture hoods for the task at hand. The capture hoods were fitted with pressure indicators so that the customer could visually check airflows before starting each task, for added peace of mind.

All extraction systems on site were commissioned and demonstrated to be performing in accordance with RVT Group's design, meeting the velocities required under HSG258 and satisfying the customer's requirements. The customer subsequently chose to retain an RVT Group technician on a regular basis to check the system and replace filters as needed, ensuring the system continued to perform at full capacity throughout the refurbishment.