Installation and coordination study for more environmentally-friendly cruise ships

Background and challenges

Cruise ships, most of which run on heavy fuel oil, are often criticized for the pollution they generate. Faced with this reality, shipping companies are making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. Such is the case of one cruise operator, which has committed to building a range of new-generation ships: larger (it’s Europe’s biggest cruise liner), more aerodynamic (with an inverted bow), and above all less polluting (reduction of up to 99% in sulfur oxides and 85% in nitrogen oxides…). The first liner in the series entered service in December 2022 and set sail for the Mediterranean Sea in March 2023.

A Saint-Nazaire shipyard was chosen to carry out the construction of this avant-garde giant of the seas. The group called on SEGULA Technologies to help design the prototype liner, which will serve as a model for future ships in the series.

This shipyard and SEGULA Technologies have a long history of partnership and projects spanning 30 years!

The issues

The shipyard needed to carry out network integration and coordination studies (piping, ventilation, electricity, etc.) on their prototype, but they didn’t have the dedicated manpower to do so.
The customer wanted service providers capable of handling this type of study, and of understanding naval constraints, respecting the tight schedule of the various assembly phases of the liners, and delivering high-quality studies..

"We have a perfect understanding of the structure and environment of cruise ships. Spaces are tight, and network routing has its own constraints. Our employees are experienced enough to find the right solution for every new challenge, and to arrange piping, sheathing and electrical wiring perfectly. You don't find this expertise in schools. A young person who joins us takes an average of 2 years to become autonomous in network integration and coordination studies on ships, after having been trained in-house.

Jean-Luc Mahé – Naval Project Manager at SEGULA Technologies.

Our missions

Receipt of the invitation to tender and costing of all the lots in the liner’s move-in area (around 120).
Submission of a commercial offer, negotiation with the customer on the scope of the study and the price.
Receive an order and set up a team.
Modeling of networks in a single 3D model based on the general pre-study carried out by the shipyard. Network optimization at the various design milestones is carried out according to the customer’s design process and changes in the necessary input data. These input data are mainly the ship’s sheet metal structure, room layouts, network diagrams and interfaces between batches.
Structural drilling management. SEGULA Technologies is also responsible for organizing interfaces between batches, and requests for access to visit and maintain the various equipment installed.
We monitor quality requirements throughout the design phase, and at each network delivery, depending on the stage of installation.

In figures

8 employees in France and Romania

10 design packages in the move-in zone executed by SEGULA Technologies

120 design packages in all, costed by SEGULA Technologies

13,376 design hours.

Customer benefits

The support of a reliable service provider with expertise in this type of study, limiting the shipyard’s workforce to the bare minimum.
The experience of a partner who has been loyal for 30 years, even in the waning years of the French shipbuilding industry, and who is able to study the most complex parts of the ship.
SEGULA Technologies teams’ in-depth knowledge of the Smart Marine 3D software used by this shipyard.