Commercial

It is important to get any raft serviced correctly by trained service station. Please ask to see our qualifications.

Service

Whether an ISO raft or a SOLAS raft, the servicing is ultimately the same. The SOLAS rafts have a slightly more structured service shedule set out by the MCA where as the ISO rafts are purely set out by the manufacturer. The service consists of three parts. Liferaft service, pack change and re-pack/certification. During the service the following is inspected:

Service
- Seams - Water pockets
- Floor - Arch / canopy
- Lights - Safety lines
- Liferaft pressure - Pressure valves

Pack change (Expired items only)
- Flares (various) - Sea sick pills
- Water - Torch batteries and spares
- Food - Pump
- Paddles - Radar reflector (checked)
- First aid kit - Lights
- Torch & batteries - Glue / repair kits

Re-pack / Certification
- Deflate - Attach cylinder
- Fold - Arm the raft
- Re-pack - Seal / band the raft
- Certificate - Workshop sheet

Cylinder

The cylinder is crucial to the raft for obvious reasons. It is vitally important to make sure there is sufficient gas, to the correct weights and types to ensure correct inflation though all temperatures. During the service the cylinder is weighed, op head re-worked / reset and where necessary the cylinder is tested and refilled. The refill is required every 5 years on SOLAS rafts and typically 10 years on ISO rafts depending on the raft. If the cylinder is really bad we can shot blast and repaint saving you money on a replacement.

Pack contents

The packs on a ISO or SOLAS raft are fairly straight forward.

ISO 9650-1 Liferaft

<24hr pack (quite common and standard)
>24hr pack
SOLAS B Pack (typically for MCA coded vessels)

The difference between the packs can be found on the Liferaft packs page but as you would expect the >24hr pack has more items in to enable survival for a longer period of time. Packs can be upgraded or downgraded depending on the use of the raft.

SOLAS

SOLAS B Pack
SOLAS A Pack

These packs are more comprehensive than the <24hr packs and container a lot of equipment.

Re-packing

Re-packing is a fine art. Every raft is packed differently and its important that you use trained engineers to service your equipment to ensure the correct inflation. If a raft is packed incorrectly there is a high chance of it not inflating correctly or at all. Vacuum pumps and heat sealer's are used to ensure this is done in accordance to the manufactures training. Every raft has a different opening strain so the correct banding or string wrapping is imperative.

Certification

After the service we issue a full workshop sheet and certificate. These are available to download from our on-line client portal. These will be stamped with our service station number. ISO rafts in a container for commercial purposes require servicing every three years where as ISO valise packed rafts and SOLAS rafts require servicing annually. We offer a inspection only service for the annual ISO valise rafts with a main service every three years like the containers.