Marine, Boat and Pool Insulation
Sprayed foam has been used extensively for many years in the marine industries, particularly for the insulation of steel and aluminium ships, trawlers, yachts, barges, narrowboats and naval vessels. It is ideally suited to this environment due to the closed cell nature of the material that will not readily absorb water and the fact that it can overcome the challenges presented by the insulation of the curved surfaces of a ship hull. The material will adhere to all suitably prepared substrates and fill any otherwise tricky to reach nooks and crannies.
The image above is one of five Fast Attack Craft built for the Greek Navy by Vosper Thorneycroft, now part of BAE Systems, in Elefsis shipyard, near Athens.
Having been contracted to work on similar vessels built by VT for other nations at their shipyards in Southampton and Portsmouth, Isotech were engaged to deploy to Greece over a period of four years to insulate areas of all five of these ship’s hulls and superstructure as the program rolled out.
A full foam spraying rig was transported to the shipyard, commissioned and maintained on site to fulfil our commitment to this project with personnel assigned to site as and when required to satisfy the precise build schedule.
Narrow boat insulation project
We were contacted by a customer wishing to insulate a newly fabricated 57 foot long steel canal barge with battery propulsion in Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
Sprayed closed cell polyurethane foam is an ideal material to apply to marine craft to ensure that all of the various contours and nooks and crannies of the deckhead and ship sides are completely covered to avoid any cold bridging and possible incidence of condensation.
The client prepared the steel with a suitable rust inhibiting primer. Timber grounds had been fitted to the steel angle frames and stiffeners to which the boat linings will subsequently be fitted. All openings were protected and the grounds masked off with parcel tape to ease the removal of material overspray. The first fix of service pipes and power cable conduit had also been installed prior to our arrival on site.
The closed cell foam was sprayed to an average thickness of 40mm to all the panels of the deckhead and ship side down to finished floor level, with particular attention paid to fill the voids behind the vessel’s frames, stiffeners and grounds.
Once spraying was completed the masking was removed and any excess material trimmed back to enable the finished linings to be fitted.
The thickness to which the material is applied is generally dictated by the depth of the hulls structural ribs and stiffeners which can vary from as little as 25mm for narrowboats to more than 200mm in a trawler fish cold store.
Our wide experience of marine sprayed foam application
Isotech has successfully installed sprayfoam insulation to the follow types of marine craft:
- Narrow boats
- Dutch barges
- Yachts
- Sailing boats
- Ferries
- Naval vessels
- Trawlers
Isotech’s record of customer satisfaction and continuing commercial success is based on high standards of personal attention from initial visit to final contract completion.