CRUISE LINER FUNNELS
Year: 1999
In the biennium 1998-99 Trimarine has been responsible for the installation management of some very large naval structures in composites. The exhaust stack fairings of the cruise ships built at Fincantieri. These are elements with a surface area in excess of 500mq built until a few years ago in metal. It is therefore easy to appreciate the significant weight savings obtained from the use of sandwich composites. Weight saving in a chimney stack fairing is important given the elevated position of these elements with respect to the vessels vertical centre of gravity but it is also fundamental to simplify the movements in the course of installation. Composite construction then facilitates the economical production of elements with complex geometries, unattainable in metal. Considering that the chimney stack fairing is one of the more visible parts of the ship and that it became the symbol of every shipping company, it can be easily understood the graphical importance of this element and the creative freedom that the construction in composites offers to the designer. This project has seen the involvement of Trimarine not only in the management of the in-situ installation, but also in the previous development phase of the construction process in order to optimise the assemby times of the numerous elements and their final assembly on board. Since on a ship of these dimensions you can find up to 5000 people working at the same time, it was of fundamental importance to install the Fairings in the shortest possible time in order to reduce every interference or interruption of other critical jobs taking place at the same time
