KR has significantly expanded its land-based test facilities for Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) by opening a brand new specialist facility. KR has been conducting type approval testing of BWMS since 2004, with a consortium of six different partners. KR and its partners segregate the duties, taking into account each organization’s specialist expertise. This range of expert knowledge and high quality services was recognized when KR was accepted as the first Independent Laboratory in Asia to be accredited by the United States Coast Guard(USCG IL). Manufacturers who have already secured BWMS type approval from their administrations or have developed new equipment and want to secure USCG type approval testing are currently facing long delays because there are not enough test facilities.
As a result, there is a significant ‘bottle-neck’ of manufacturers awaiting USCG type approval testing, particularly land-based testing. To mitigate this situation, KR and one of its partners, Korea Marine Equipment Research Institute(KOMERI) agreed to work together to establish and to build additional test facilities to meet this demand. On 22 July, 2016, KR and KOMERI and the consortium partners celebrated the completion of the building works for the new land-based test facilities.
The test facility, which already offered the largest capacity for BWMS testing of anywhere in the world, has been expanded. It now is composed of four units (three of which are new) with one challenge water tank (with a 2,000 m3/h capacity). The new challenge water tank supplies water to the four units, each of which comprises two or three further tanks, each with a capacity of TRC 500 m3/h.
KR’s goal is to meet the growing demand for testing and certifying services from BWMS manufacturers around the world, and by providing high quality specialist services to support the development of improved, more reliable BWMS. The new facility will be approved by the USCG in September and at the same time will become fully operational for land-based testing for USCG type approval as well type approval testing for other Administrations under the IMO’s G8 guidelines.
Commenting on the completion of the building works, Dr. B. S. Park, Chairman and CEO of KR said:
“KR and its consortium partners already offer the most expert skills, specialist knowledge and the highest technical capabilities of any test facility anywhere in the world. With this new facility we will be able to offer significantly increased capacity and enhanced type approval services to BWMS manufacturers, ready for the Ballast Water Convention to enter into force. At the same time KR will continue to support its global customers with high quality expert services tailored to their business needs”.
