South East company wins innovation award at Seawork
Marine South East has been working to improve innovation and skills in the industry for the past few years, and as part of this work has sponsored the Spirit of Innovation award at Seawork for the last two years.
So it was with great pleasure that Marine South East announced the overall winner of the Spirit of Innovation award as South East company Halyard, a company that has shown great commitment to innovation and improving skills in the sector.
On winning the award Halyard Managing Director James Grazebrook commented: “The Spirit of Innovation Award celebrates a real breakthrough in silencing water-injected marine exhaust systems – the ability to tune the system to attack one or more particular frequencies. This breakthrough is equally important to commercial vessels as operators currently endure hours at noise levels which can be close to the maximum allowed in industry.
Halyard attributed success of the award to Southampton University, with whom they had collaborated over a number of years to combine the university’s acoustic skills with Halyard’s knowledge of marine exhausts. The win will be a huge help in establishing the product in the commercial sector and demonstrates the huge benefits that can be gained in knowledge transfer between Universities and marine businesses.
Halyard has also been working with Marine South East on a training programme that is one of a number of initiatives in the area of workforce development that are starting to see results. Marine South East has been working with the British Marine Federation and Halyard on a programme to ensure adherence to the recently amended Recreational Craft Directive, which has placed specific requirements on boat builders and engine manufacturers to limit noise emissions. Halyard has committed to ensuring that all of its staff and customers have an understanding and awareness of current legal requirements for noise and vibration when designing and building future models.
The Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at University of Southampton has produced a Noise and Vibration Awareness training course which is being delivered initially as a pilot to Halyard staff and will soon be available to a wider audience of Boat builders and Designers.
Jonathan Williams, Marine South East Chief Executive commented: “it is this joined up approach between businesses, support organisations and training bodies such as universities, which is proving to show results. It has been a long process bringing some of these projects to fruition, but over the coming months you will see a range of programmes that will show that by working together we can bring about significant improvements for the industry.
“Innovation and training are high on our agenda, and with a range of projects such as the Environmental Decision Support Network, the development of a 5-axis milling machine for the industry, input into the development of a waterfront strategy for the South East and support programmes for those looking to improve their skills in the industry, we can ensure that the South East leads the way in producing high-tech products using high-skilled workers.”
If you would like to find out more about ongoing projects log onto http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/ongoing_projects
Send this story to a colleague
