129 COMMENTARY Ensuring fire safety at sea has always required shipowners to accept that more protection means more weight, which means higher costs. Every kilogram of insulation added to a vessel reduces its fuel efficiency and limits the flexibility of its design, forcing naval architects to work around this seemingly unavoidable restriction to ensure the safety of guests. However, CBG Systems, a marine engineering company with manufacturing facilities in Australia and Spain, has introduced two fire rated systems that are redefining these limits. RAC Plus, an A-60 structural fire protection that weighs 4.5 kilograms per square metre, making it the lightest A-60 fire insulation solution in the world and B15 Lite, a B15 panels system at 7.5 kilograms per square metre. Together, they represent an opportunity for the shipping industry to rethink its approach to fire safety and ship efficiency. RAC Plus has been selected for use onboard Molslinjen’s new electric high-speed ferries, one of the largest electrification projects in maritime history. The demands placed on fire insulation around battery and electrical systems are particularly extreme in these vessels. That a system born from A-60 fire performance requirements is now protecting such an ambitious electric newbuild programme is a signal of how far the category has moved. At the other end of the market, CBG’s systems are being installed in some of the most significant superyachts under construction in the Netherlands, Croatia and Turkey – three of the world’s leading centres of high-end yacht building. The same systems are also being adopted across steel ro-pax ferry projects worldwide, a sector where fire safety requirements are exacting and where operators weigh every kilogram against fuel economy and deadweight capacity. RAC Plus and B15 Lite are rebalancing the trade-off between protection and performance. As the adoption of electric propulsion continues to expand in the global passenger fleet, the systems built to safeguard vessels will need to keep pace – not only by meeting safety standards but also by helping operators to cut costs. That is the standard CBG Systems is now asking the industry to meet. CBG Systems will showcase RAC Plus and B15 Lite at SMM Hamburg 2026 at Stand B5.415 in Hall B5 from 1-4 September Setting a new standard in passenger vessel safety CBG Systems is redefining the limits of fire safety solutions with the introduction of two market-leading lightweight insulation systems JAVIER HERBON Javier Herbon is managing director of CBG Systems, with 20 years’ expertise in the shipbuilding industry working across major defence and commercial shipbuilding projects worldwide
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