Detection That Survives Salt, Vibration and Distance from Help

Every fire safety assumption that works ashore has to be re-examined at sea. There is no fire brigade to call. The response is the crew already on board, working in confined machinery spaces, on a moving deck, possibly at night. And the environment itself is corrosive: salt-laden air, humidity and continuous vibration degrade enclosures, cable glands and terminations far faster than any onshore installation.

ZE-Tronics supplies, installs, commissions and maintains fire and gas detection for vessels, offshore production facilities and marine terminals, with type-approved equipment from authorised manufacturer partnerships and local engineering and calibration support in the Caspian region.

Machinery spaces and engine rooms

The engine room concentrates fuel oil, lubricating oil, hot surfaces and electrical plant in a space that people work in. It is also structurally cluttered, which is the practical problem for detection: a flame detector with a nominal field of view covering the whole compartment covers considerably less once the actual arrangement of engines, pipework and gratings is taken into account.

• Multi-spectrum infrared flame detection sited against the real arrangement, not the deck plan
• Smoke and heat detection for machinery casings, purifier rooms and workshops
• Fuel oil and lube oil leak considerations built into detector placement
• CO₂, water mist or clean agent release logic with ventilation and damper interlocks
• Local and bridge-repeated alarm indication with unambiguous zone identification

Cargo holds, tanks and pump rooms

Sampling smoke detection is the established approach for cargo holds, drawing air continuously from each hold to a central detection cabinet where it can be examined without anyone entering the space. Pump rooms on tankers add hydrocarbon gas detection, because the hazard there is an accumulation rather than a visible fire, and because the space is entered for maintenance.

On tankers, FPSOs and offshore production facilities, hydrocarbon and toxic gas detection sits alongside the vessel’s fire detection rather than replacing it. Both are needed, and they alarm to different people for different reasons.

Offshore production decks

An offshore production deck is an oil and gas facility that happens to float. Open, naturally ventilated areas where a release disperses before a point detector sees it; high-pressure lines where a jet release vents to atmosphere without forming a measurable cloud; and process equipment sitting a short distance from accommodation.

• Open-path infrared across process decks and dispersion corridors
• Ultrasonic gas leak detection for high-pressure hydrocarbon service
• Hydrogen sulphide monitoring in sour service, fixed and personal
• Multi-spectrum infrared flame detection with offshore-rated enclosures
• Emergency shutdown interfacing and confirmed voting arrangements

Type approval, and why it is a hard constraint

A detector that performs excellently ashore cannot be installed on a classed vessel unless it holds marine type approval and the vessel’s class society accepts it. Approval covers more than the sensing element: vibration, humidity, salt mist, electromagnetic compatibility and behaviour under power supply variation are all part of it, because all of them occur routinely at sea.

We supply type-approved equipment and deliver the certification with it. That sounds procedural until a survey is held up because a certificate cannot be produced, at which point it becomes the whole project.

Alarm and notification that works in noise

Machinery spaces are loud. Notification has to overcome the ambient level with margin, and it has to be unambiguous about location — a general alarm that tells the crew something is wrong somewhere is far less useful than one that tells them which space. We size audible devices against measured noise levels rather than nominal ones, add visual alarm devices where hearing protection is worn, and integrate with the vessel’s general alarm and public address arrangements so the fire system speaks with the same voice as the rest of the bridge.

Calibration and support when the asset is not alongside

Detection is only as good as its last calibration, and an asset at sea cannot bring its detectors to a laboratory. We plan around that: calibration scheduled to port calls and shutdown windows, exchange units held ready so a swap takes minutes, and returned units calibrated in our own AZS ISO/IEC 17025:2020 accredited laboratory with traceable results.

Portable gas detection for enclosed space entry gets the same treatment. A portable instrument with an expired calibration is a hazard rather than a safeguard, and enclosed space entry is precisely where that matters. We support the on-board bump test regime with accredited calibration behind it and keep the records that prove it.

Repair in country, not in transit

When a detector fails, the cost is rarely the detector. It is the weeks the asset spends with reduced coverage while a unit travels to a manufacturer and back. Our electronics repair laboratory diagnoses and restores flame, gas and smoke detectors and their control equipment locally, which keeps spares circulating and impairments short.

See our commissioning, calibration and support services, or tell us about the vessel or facility.