Novel liferaft design could save lives

A team of young design engineers have developed a revolutionary design of liferaft that is inherently stable and which self-rights when at full capacity. Dean Palmer reports A new design of liferaft has been developed that is truly revolutionary and is already causing much excitement amongst the maritime industry. Not only does it look completely different from existing liferaft models, it also boasts inherently superior stability over existing designs and even has self righting capabilities when the raft is at full capacity. The idea behind the Ocean Survival Unit (OSU) was to give survivors of ocean-going disasters the best possible chance of survival in extreme, hazardous conditions. The pioneer of the OSU is 4Cdesign, a product and engineering design company based in Scotland. The company's director Peter Inglis, told Eureka: "Our tests showed that in a swimming pool, an individual wearing a lifejacket took 25 seconds to enter a normal liferaft, following formal instruction and training. The same individual stepped into the OSU in four seconds without any instruction or training." The raft's design was based around two key features: a solid step incorporated below the waterline and a section of the inflatable perimeter was removed. The new model is distinctly different from existing designs, which, according to 4Cdesign, have not changed for decades. The brightly coloured inflatable unit has a self-draining floor and has compartmentalised sections. It starts life as a compact, watertight package in the shape of an aerodynamic wing, but when fully inflatable, the addition of a ballast chamber and the use of basic hydrodynamic principles also provide the OSU with superior stability characteristics and self-righting capabilities when fully occupied. During the development stage, reference was made to the appropriate organisations such as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and Saving Lives at Sea (SOLAS). Inglis continued: "The current units available on the market are ideal for reasonably rough seas with large swell. Although in extreme seas with winds catching underneath and large breaking waves, the features which make the raft stable also make it vulnerable to capsizing and are not easily righted... We wanted to create a raft design that would be considered superior and would meet the needs of those stranded at sea in life-threatening situations." The company is currently looking for funding to commercialise the OSU and sell the technology to a global market that is estimated to be worth millions of pounds. Pointers * The novel raft design has a piece removed from its inflatable section to incorporate a solid step below the waterline * In swimming pool tests, the average time taken for a life-jacketed person to enter the raft was four seconds, compared to 25 seconds with existing rafts * The designers are now looking for funding to help take the product to market