- Business news
Leading cable and pipe seal manufacturer Roxtec will showcase its expertise and latest technology at Europe’s largest on-water commercial marine and workboat exhibition. The Roxtec UK team will be on hand at Seawork at Mayflower Park in Southampton from June 11-13 - demonstrating its ability to deliver sealing solutions for workboats and highlighting its industry-leading GRP frames and sleeves for cable and pipe seals.
Roxtec is the global leader in the manufacture of innovative cable and pipe transit systems, supplying many of the world’s biggest firms. It can be found on stand SM5 during Seawork. One of Roxtec’s biggest sectors is marine, and the company supplies cable and pipe transits for multiple industry demands including meeting the needs of shipbuilders and ship repairers.
Sealing solutions for composite structures
Roxtec sealing solutions with GRP frames and sleeves for cables and pipes are watertight, gas-tight and A-class fire rated. They are ideal for newbuilds or refurbished boats in fiberglass or composite and are attached through lamination on vessels that range from superyachts to navy ships.
The frames and sleeves can be used in everything from electric ferries to rescue boats and patrol vessels to maintain solid, strong, and light structures. All Roxtec GRP composite solutions are developed for easy lamination or gluing to the structure. That means drilling and bolting can be avoided, reducing the risk of cracks.
The strength of the deck or bulkhead can be easily maintained and the tested and certified seals from Roxtec deliver reliability. Roxtec has created several GRP versions to choose from, depending on the particular need of the customer.
Swedish Coast Guard
Construction and repair and service yard Ö-varvet in Gothenburg, has used Roxtec GRP solutions when working on composite boats for the Swedish Coast Guard. It has replaced cable and pipe penetration frames in steel and aluminium with lightweight yet very strong transit frames and sleeves in glass-reinforced polyester created by Roxtec.
Ö-varvet needed lighter solutions and wanted to avoid bolting in the very small space available onboard.
Daniel Olofsson, Project Manager at Ö-varvet, says: “This is a very good solution. Before, we had to install aluminium frames with flanges for bolting. Now we can reduce the space for mounting and still enter a larger frame for more cables into the composite structure. It becomes solid and strong.”
Roxtec SRC GRP multi-cable transits with rounded corners are used on the Madera ribs of the vessels. The seals ensure fire rated and watertight bulkhead penetrations for power cables running between the battery package, the engine room, and the technical room. The rounded corners reduce stress concentration and the risk of cracks.
The lightweight products in composite make a real difference. They can avoid bolting metallic cable and pipe penetration frames into the composite hull and still be sure to maintain a strong and solid structure.
Daniel Olofsson says: “We could lift the entire boat by the existing frame. That is how strong it is.”
