Hall Thermotank Marine Systems

 

J & E Hall – one of the founding companies of refrigeration technology – has maintained its enviable record of serving the flagships of the Cunard fleet by supplying Queen Mary 2 with four packaged chillers.

 

J & E Hall supplied refrigeration equipment to all of the ‘Queens’ operated by Cunard, including the first Queen Mary and both Elizabeth’s. Indeed the J & E Hall/Cunard relationship goes right back to the Blue Riband winning Mauretania and the ill-fated Lusitania, both launched in 1906. J & E Hall's marine heritage stretches back to the dawn of maritime refrigeration with the SS Elderslie, built in 1884. The SS Elderslie, built in Jarrow, was the worlds first ship built specifically to bring back refrigerated meat from New Zealand.

 

Launched on January 12^th 2004 to worldwide acclaim as the ultimate in luxury transatlantic cruising, QM2 follows in the wake of a host of legendary Cunard vessels, emulating the style and service levels of a bygone era, but offering them in a package bristling with technological firsts and on a massive scale. Queen Mary 2 is the largest, longest, widest, tallest and most expensive passenger ship in the world.

 

QM2 is a record breaker in every respect. It is five times longer than Cunard’s first ship the Britannia (230ft) and 113ft longer than the original Queen Mary. With a gross tonnage of 151,400 tons, the 1,132ft long vessel (that’s 41 London double decker buses) can travel at up to 30 knots (34.5mph) thanks to it’s 157,000 horsepower, environmentally friendly, gas turbine/diesel electric engines.

 

QM2 can carry up to 2620 passengers in palatial luxury with a further 1,253 crew on board to meet their every need. The ship has 17 decks in total and offers a range of sports facilities, shops, bars, lounges, no fewer than five pools, eight Jacuzzis and a total of ten dining outlets. The enormity of such a project demanded a very special solution when it came to refrigeration.

 

J & E Hall's pedigree and experience in maritime refrigeration, coupled to a 100 year relationship with Cunard made the company a natural choice for a project as ambitious as the new QM2. After Terry Dixon of Hall's negotiated the original contract with MacGregor’s, the sub contractor for ship builders Chantiers de L’Atlantique, it was up to J & E Hall’s Chief Designer Peter Thurston, along with his team to produce a working design.

 

The J & E Hall team specified four packaged chillers to cool Glycol and Freezium for circulation to cold stores, freezer stores and refrigerated galleys as well as being used for cooling key electronic components throughout the seventeen decks.

 

Whilst much of the technology is outwardly identical to the counterparts specified in any similar sized industrial project Hall’s still have to ‘marinise’ a number of key components.

 

David Ball, the J & E Hall engineering director, explains what the ‘marinisation’ process consist of: "Firstly all the wiring has to meet SOLAS (Safety of lives at sea) standards i.e. zero halogen, low smoke cable must be used which will not give off poisonous fumes in case of a fire. Secondly we have to take into account the pitching and rolling of the vessel together with the “shock” loads imposed by the worst Atlantic weather. To cope with the added stresses and strains the pressure vessels are designed and built to Lloyds Register of Shipping Rules, the units are installed on anti vibration/shock mounts and the electronic controllers are rated for 10G shock loads.”

 

“Compressor lubrication and oil separation is another area where the standard design needs changes to ensure oil reaches all moving parts at all times, even during excessive movement of the ship”.

 

The engineering team at Rochester completed the designs, while the chillers themselves were built at Hall's Dartford plant prior to being despatched to the French shipyards.

 

Such is the size of the packaged chillers capable of providing the cooling necessary, they had to be built into the superstructure of the vessel at a very early stage. Indeed they were despatched to the St Nazaire shipyard in September 2002 – some 18 months before commissioning for sea trials. MacGregor’s, the sub contractor handling this part of the project for Cunard, had to re-crate the equipment in-situ after delivery, while the rest of the ship was built around it.

 

The chillers then remained untouched for almost a year until MacGregor’s staff started the glycol pipework installation process.

 

J & E Hall commissioning engineers were responsible for ensuring that the equipment operated to specification during the first short sea-trials in August 2003, and two of the engineers had the honour of accompanying the record breaking ship on its second venture into the ocean.

 

The chillers worked perfectly throughout the five day voyage which is a testament to the great job done by J & E Hall International.