Who is IMO?  What is MED? And what is Type Approval?  

The IMO or the International Maritime Organisation is a unit of the United Nations specialised in and responsible for measures to enhance safety and security of international shipping, at the same time ensuring prevention of marine pollution caused by ships.  It is one of the duties of the IMO to devise measures and strategies to keep the waterways clean by making sure ships do not cause any pollution such as oil slicks or discharge of undesirable material into the sea that could damage marine life.

The Marine Equipment Directive (MED) is a legislation by the European Commission to ensure quality of marine equipment placed on board European flagged ships.  This directive aims at increasing marine safety and reduce marine pollution.  The Marine Directive 2014/90/EU stipulates that marine equipment to be installed on new or existing ships shall be approved and bear the MED mark of conformity, the “Wheel Mark”.

With regard to Type Approval, it is a procedure for approval of a product design, its drawing and performance testing of the prototype for compliance to standards laid down. Type approval means once the design of the product is assessed and performance test done, approval is automatically valid for all subsequent products of the same design.

Type approval is applicable for all products, more so for manufactured items such as diesel engines, gear boxes, cables, transformers, tanks, incinerators etc.

Type approval is compulsory for certain products but it can also be requested by the manufacturer voluntarily.

The type approval certification procedure is elaborate, necessarily so, and uncompromising for even the smallest details.

The manufacturer has to apply to the respective inspecting / classification agency who will examine the technical documentation submitted. They will go through the design drawings and after clarifications will give preliminary approval. They will also define in consultation with the manufacturer an internal test programme as well as a factory run test.

They will then execute the type test once the product is ready for testing and will issue RINA type approval, after satisfactory review of the test reports and the actual test.

These certificates are recognised worldwide and without these, no equipment is allowed to be fitted on board ocean going ships.

The validity of a type approval certificate is generally five years, after which the certificate needs to be renewed.

We took the initiative of going through the IMO MED type test for our SWR model Marine Incinerator and went through a phase of innovations,  challenges and new experiences.

The design itself was challenging because we had to produce an incinerator suitable for a design temperature of 1200°C but with an outside skin temperature of 35°C!!  It has to meet certain emission standards. It has to withstand the rolling, pitching and movement of ships. It has to be accommodated within the ship’s limited space.

The entire process took us 3 years and it required the incinerator to run non-stop for 6-8 hours to prove its sturdiness, trouble-free performance and failure-free components.

A jacketed design was made, by which the inner body of the incinerator was constantly cooled by atmospheric air between the inner and outer body.

The finish, performance and test results gave our design, production, project and procurement teams great satisfaction, since this was the FIRST MARINE INCINERATOR indigenously made in line with the Government`s `Make in India` policy.

This certification enabled us to supply Marine Incinerators outside India, among others, to a Diesel powered generating station owned by a Government, where it has been performing satisfactorily without any issues for more than 5 years.

We recently got the IMO certificate renewed and also received DGQA Class I registration.