Silicone fabric has been emerging up as one kind of newest sustainable material in recent years, especially in the maritime industry, silicone fabric has turned out it is the best option in the marine business because of its stable properties (water-hydrolysis resistance, high color-fastness, and high-low temperature resistance) while in the harsh marine environment (corrosion, high UV irradiation), as a manufacturer of silicone fabric, some regulations have to be followed, getting one classification society certificate is the first step, here I am writing this article to give a small presentation of IMO, IACS, RINA, MED B+D etc.

What is IMO?

IMO is the abbreviation of International Maritime Organization, it is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for the safety, security, and environmental performance of international shipping. We can think of it as the global rule-maker for the shipping industry,  it is like the legislator involving all aspects of shipping industry, including the safety of the ships, the marine environmenal protection, the professional quality and training system suitable for the seaman. In general, IMO authorize some agents to complete their jobs. here let me introduce into IACS.

What is IACS?

As the abbreviation of International Association of Classification Societies, IACS is an organization comprised of 11 shipping classification societies, including Italy's RINA, UK's Lloyd's Register,  USA's American Bureau of shipping, Bureau Veritas from France etc. IACS don't include all classification societies, there are also some outside from IACS, such as Turkish Lloyd from Turkey, Hellenic Register of shipping from Greece. Here I need to clarify that IMO is like the boss, and there is only one boss in the planet, all the classification societies should have been authorised by IMO, no matter where we apply for the certificates from UK or from Italy, we can say our products are IMO compliant, it means that our products can sell into the shipping industry.  Timwell has gotten RINA certificate, please see the next part that I will introduce RINA certificate and the procedures to apply it.

What is RINA?

RINA, a very breathtaking name, as the abbreviation of Registro Italiano Navale,  it is the classification society from Italy, speaking of Italy, a romantic feeling comes, there are many modern fashionable and luxurious brands originating from there, until now luxurious yachts brands still come from Italy. Timwell has contacted the Rina branch in China which is located in Shanghai, under their help, Timwell's products can be used in the shipping industry safely. Applying Rina is a complicated process, the cost is not a small money either, if speaking of RINA, then we need to talk about MED B+D.

How to understand MED B+D?

MED is the combination of the Initials of Marine Equipment Directive, when we apply RINA certificate, the consulting company will ask us what is your product, then they will tell us what kind of certificate we can get, MED B or MED B+D, here I would like to explain it shortly, B is for the products, we submit some data, if RINA grants it okay, then we will get B, but D is very important, D is for the manufacturing, it's like ISO90001 system, RINA will dispatch some professional stuff to give the factory an audit, and if it is passed, then they will give us MED D certificate, if not, they will ask us to rectify and improve, here I would like to remind that the audit cost is charged by time, RINA and most consulting companies will not guarantte anything. 

The Applying Procession of RINA MED B+D

RINA is one prudent classification society, as I mentioned earlier, the cost is not cheap, ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 when we apply for RINA, we usually pay three parts, application cost to RINA + cost to Consulting company + the testing cost to the testing company, please be advised that RINA is not responsible for testing, they only set up the regulations, and testing company will test the products according to their requests and publish the reports. The procedures are mainly composed of three parts, firstly we have to prepare the pre-testing job ( application to RINA, specification, test program, sealed sample confirmation), then we ask the testing company to test our samples and submit the passed reports to RINA for getting the MED B,  thirdly RINA will dispatch some professional auditors to check our factory and we will get D certificate if the production process is approved.

MED B+D is a complicated job, I hope that this article helps you a little, and if you're interested in silicone fabric which could be used in yachts and ship, please contact me.