The first bulk carrier adopting NSafe-Hull was launched in August for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. NSafe-Hull – a highly ductile steel plate for shipbuilding with improved collision safety – was developed by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) and adopted through the collaborative R&D by NSSMS, Imabari Shipbuilding and the National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI).
Due to NSafe-Hull’s superior ductility, the energy absorbed before breaking hull in the case of a side collision could be roughly triple that for a ship made of conventional steels thereby increasing the ship’s durability compared with conventional steels. The Mitsui O.S.K. Lines ship used approximately 3,000 tons of NSafe-Hull for structural parts where high collision safety performance was required, such as the side plates of cargo holds and fuel tanks.
NSSMC is planning to conduct more advanced analyses with the support of the ‘Joint R&D with Industries and Academic Partners’ scheme of Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK). ClassNK is also considering assigning notations to ships with higher safety, such as for ships in which NSafe-Hull is used, in order to further improve ship safety.
