Seatrade Awards 2009: Nomination for Minimax Minifog marine XP

Minimax is the only German company to be nominated for the Seatrade Awards 2009 with its Minifog marine XP. The new, efficient high-pressure water mist extinguishing system, offering an heretofore unknown level of operational safety on ships and meeting the current IMO guidelines, was listed in the ‘Safety at Sea’ category.

Over the past decades the Seatrade Awards have established themselves as the world’s most important maritime award and are often even described as the international shipping industry “Oscars”. The Seatrade Award recognises innovative product solutions for safe, efficient and environmentally friendly shipping.

The new Minifog marine XP high-pressure water mist extinguishing system from Minimax convinced the jury of ten international experts with their chairman Efthimios Mitropoulos, General Secretary of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and was nominated in the ‘Safety at Sea’. Commended in this category are outstanding technical or process-oriented innovations minimising the risk to human life at sea. The 21st Seatrade Awards ceremony is being held in London in May 2009.

An optimum all-around protection on ships has been achieved via the high-pressure water mist extinguishing system Minifog marine XP: The efficient extinguishing system can be used in all areas – whether cabins, corridors or in the boiler room – and covers up to 32 square metres of protective surface with one single sprinkler. Only one single type of nozzle is required for the entire engine room protection – including item and bilge protection. Hence there is no risk of confusion in the nozzle installation.

In the event of fire Minifog marine XP requires up to 90 percent less extinguishing water than classic sprinkler systems. The extremely low of extinguishing water required enables the system’s piping and water supply to be designed small and light. That means not only a savings on system costs but also a lower overall weight of the extinguishing system as well as minimising the space needed. A foaming agent additive for the extinguishing water is not necessary, due to the effective high-pressure water mist extinguishing technology. A separate system, such as a CO2 extinguishing system together with the cylinder bank for engine room protection, is also not necessary. The Minifog marine XP sprinklers and nozzles are made entirely of stainless steel. The sprinklers have an appealing design and are available in different colours.