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Survitec’s Life Ark evacuation system granted Bureau Veritas type approval

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There is no restriction on the size of individual users of Life Ark and, if necessary, crew can ascend the spiral slide to assist passengers
Marine evacuation system (MES) Life Ark from Survitec has received full type approval certification from Bureau Veritas.

It is suitable for small to medium-sized cruise ships, including expedition vessels, with a freeboard height of up to 23mtr and accommodating between 300 and 1,500 passengers.

The product was officially introduced at the SMM Trade Fair in Hamburg.

Fresh from the drawing board

‘There is demand for an extended service MES solution with high functionality to serve the smaller passenger vessel market,’ explained Richard McCormick, Survitec’s advanced evacuation systems and marine evacuation systems product manager.

‘We went back to the drawing board and took a fresh look at how we could adapt our cruise ship evacuation technology to meet the requirements of this market. Bureau Veritas type approval means that the smaller passenger vessel segment can now benefit from the same revolutionary helical slide-based MES used in the larger cruiseship segment.’

A 'pioneering' business

Andreas Ulrich, global market leader passenger ships & ferries, Bureau Veritas, said, ‘Marine Evacuation Systems have been proven as a safe and reliable means of survival and Survitec is one of the pioneers having developed such systems. BV is proud to have been chosen as a partner for the new Life Ark and has recently issued a MED TA certificate for the new system.’

Product Life Ark+ is available as a 30-month extended service option.