31 March 2022 – Leading Classification Society ClassNK has systematically organized certification schemes to support the development and implementation of new technologies and released them as “Guidelines for Approval in Principle and General Design Approval” and “Guidelines for Technology Qualification”.
In response to technological innovation toward environmental issues and digitalization, various new technologies are being developed and implemented in ships and onboard equipment and systems. In verifying the safety that is essential for the new technology implementation, not only review based on existing standards such as international conventions and class rules but also adequate assessment for the technology to which it is difficult to apply existing standards is required. For safety verification of new technologies, ClassNK has systematically organized the schemes and compiled them into two guidelines.
“Guidelines for Approval in Principle and General Design Approval” outline a certification process to review designs based on existing standards such as international conventions and class rules in its early design stage or before a specific ship that will implement the product is determined. In addition to prevent backwards progress for the regulatory aspects in the later stages and shorten the time required for the final ship classification design review, these schemes can be used as a technical basis for appealing the progress of the design status. According to the guidelines, ClassNK issues Approval in Principle (AiP) for basic design stage or earlier and General Design Approval (GDA) for products which are universally applicable to various ships in the detailed design stage.
Meanwhile, “Guidelines for Technology Qualification” outline a certification process for technologies based on new concepts and designs that cannot be addressed by existing rules and standards. They provide a risk-based approach to safety assessment to implement the new technology. Through the identification of risks and issues associated with the novelty of the technology and the review of the safety measures responding to them, ClassNK confirms that the concerned technology functions reliably within a defined scope, and issue a technology qualification. The qualification indicates that the new technology has been verified to be as acceptably safe as the technologies designed under existing rules and standards.
As a third-party certification body, ClassNK will continue to support the development and social implementation of new technologies by practicing rational safety verification.
The guidelines are available to download via ClassNK’s website www.classnk.com for those who have registered for the ClassNK “My Page” service. To register for the “My Page” service free of charge, go to the ClassNK website www.classnk.com for those registered for the ClassNK “My Page” service.
