DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 122
A new segment
at sea
In the latter 1960s, Dæmpa A/S began a very lucrative collaborative project with the Elsinore Shipyard and with the
insulation maker Rockwool to develop an efficient ceiling
system for use in ships and in other marine applications.
This project not only involved Dæmpa’s designers Jean Fischer and Ove Jørgensen but also the yard’s experienced
head of the Outfitting Department, Ole Homann Pedersen,
who was a Danish representative in the International Maritime Organisation. He could thus ensure that the outcome
of their joint work could be certified as meeting the requirements of existing and forthcoming safety criteria in the international Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS) conventions, which
govern all materials for use in shipbuilding. The starting point
for the design was the existing, hitherto unsuccessful Dæmpa 20/30 steel panels, though for shipboard use, instead of
being cut and profiled in 20-by-30-centimetre rectangles,
they would be long, 30-centimetre-wide strips.
In June 1970 Homann Pedersen invited senior members of
the outfitting departments of the Danish shipbuilders Burmeister & Wain, Odense Lindø, Aalborg Værft and
Orlogsværftet (The Danish naval shipyard in Copenhagen)
to attend a meeting at which he showed examples of the
profiled ceiling panels developed jointly with Dæmpa and of
the wall panels developed with Rockwool. All were members of the Danske Værfters Standardiserings Udvalg (Danish Shipyards Standardisation Committee), which had been
formed to agree joint standards for quality and dimensions
to which the Dæmpa ceilings and Rockwool wall panels
would need to conform. The participants requested some
minor modifications of the profiles of the prototype panels
and Homann Pedersen invited them back in August to
inspect a mock-up of a non-flammable cabin and corridor,
compatible with the forthcoming SOLAS regulations, which
his department would be building for demonstration purposes.
Selling the DCC system was the prerogative of Harry
Schrøder, who subsequently was promoted to take charge
of a separate Dæmpa Marine Ceilings division.
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