Antisink unveils buoyancy aid
A company manufacturing devices to prevent boats sinking has brought on board gas cylinder firm Luxfer to provide an even more lightweight and sustainable solution.
Norwegian maritime company Antisink began making systems comprising self-inflating buoyancy bags with foam canisters to keep boats afloat in 2017. A challenge for the developers was to deliver a high level of buoyancy, so they soon began researching alternatives to foam.
“We needed a smaller installation system but greater levels of buoyancy,” said Antisink’s Bjøro Karlsen, who helped design the product. “CO2 is used in life rafts, so we started looking at CO2 cylinders to provide the necessary air and contacted several aluminium cylinder manufacturers.
“That’s when we found Luxfer. We made contact in early 2021 and since then, we’ve designed a robust system incorporating Luxfer’s high quality cylinders, which can keep a boat afloat for weeks, with little maintenance required.”
With Luxfer cylinders in place, the Antisink system is automatically activated once it senses flooding, filling the buoyancy bags in under a minute and keeping the boat above sea level. The system is also designed to displace water from the boat’s internal compartments, keeping everyone safe until help arrives.
The system has green credentials too – the cylinders are aluminium, making them easy to recycle or refill. Plus keeping boats afloat is far less polluting than a shipwreck.
With access now to a variety of different sized cylinders, Antisink is hoping to extend the business to a wider market and the kit is currently being trialled by the Norwegian navy with ambitions to roll it out to the coastguard as well.
