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Uljanik produces new car carrier Siem Cicero

12 Jun '17

2 min read

Uljanik has produced a new car carrier Siem Cicero in collaboration with Diab, to be used for transportation of cars and heavy vehicles for the London-based company "Siem car carriers", serving mainly Volkswagen cars. Founded in 1856, Uljanik is a shipbuilding company and shipyard located in Pula, Croatia. It is among the oldest shipyards in the world.

Uljanik and Diab initiated talks almost two years ago - discussions that have now resulted in the design of a unique vessel, Siem Cicero. With a length of two football fields, the ship can carry 7,000 vehicles and it incorporates new technologies that will reduce environmental impact and cut cost.

The ship has thirteen decks. Three of the decks are being built as sandwich elements using Diab’s light-weight Divinycell core. Each deck uses 2500 square metres of Divinycell H100 and 1000 square metres of Divinycell H80. Compared to the traditional steel decks the weight savings for the decks will be 25 per cent or a staggering 200 tonnes. This, in turn, will result in a reduced fuel consumption of four per cent or an increase of the payload.

The substantial weight and cost savings are made possible by replacing a mere three out of thirteen decks. As the vessel has ten additional decks and a superstructure made of thick steel, there is a tremendous opportunity for further savings in the ships that are to follow Siem Cicero. Through close cooperation and a careful analysis of data from this first vessel, Uljanik and Diab are looking into how core sandwich solutions can be used in other parts of the ships.

Since there are car carriers of the same size built with traditional steel, the collaboration between Uljanik and Diab offers a unique possibility to monitor and measure the savings that can be had with Diab sandwich composite solutions. As a leader of knowledge and innovation within the field of sandwich composites, Diab is consistently developing new methods for stronger, lighter and smarter products and will follow Siem Cicero and her sister ships with great interest. (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India