Established in 1994, Seaward Safety has been supplying safety signage to the energy sector from its headquarters in Lowestoft for nearly three decades.
Seaward Safety is a one-stop shop for procurement from survey to installation, with fully-customisable signage tailored to each client’s requirements.
Part of the EXHEAT Group, Seaward Safety supplies essential onsite signage including hazard warnings, fire control, platform identification, anti-slip markings and more to the energy sector.
A seven-year guarantee is applied to all external signage and boards, and a lifetime guarantee on all internal signage and boards.
The business also offers both desktop and onsite surveys, as well as a gap analysis survey to identify breaches in escape route signage that should lead to an exit or muster station.
“We pride ourselves on offering products that withstand the harshest offshore environments including from cold, heat, wind and salt,” says Seaward Safety managing director Ian Williams.
With an additional office in Houston, Texas, the company also has agents in China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Korea facilitating a global service.
“Many years ago, we created a sign package for land rigs. This was developed in-house and has been supplied to more than 100 land rigs in the US and the Middle East.”
Next year, Seaward Safety will celebrate its 30th anniversary. Ian says that one of the company’s greatest achievements in the past three decades was its Safety Awareness System (SAS) developed with Sedco Forex.
“Since its creation, it’s been taken on by nearly all the offshore drilling companies,” he explains.
Its key benefits include a text-free system that ensures quick identification of safety messages. Its international symbol recognition means there is no need to re-sign if the facility or vessel changes location and it also eradicates the need for multiple signs, reducing the risk of ‘sign blindness’, while remaining compliant with all national and international regulations.
Seaward’s low location photoluminescent lighting system was created to go above and beyond IMO regulations. The system guides offshore personnel and cruise or ferry passengers to safety if the facility experiences a fire or black-out and must be evacuated.
“We have also worked hard over the years to develop a pipe marking solution that reduces the risk of corrosion caused by conventional markers that adhere directly to the pipe,” says Ian. “Our coiled markers adhere to themselves, rather than the pipe, to allow air and water to pass through the marker.”
Seaward Safety’s retro-reflective platform identification signs have been another great product addition. These are mostly used in the North Sea but have been adapted for use as corporate logo signs all around the world.
Seaward Safety has also taken steps to bolster its green credentials. The company recently invested in a new state-of-the-art printer – the HP Latex 700 – which will drastically reduce Seaward Safety’s carbon footprint.
Due to the chemicals required in previous production methods, both trade effluent monitoring and controlled waste removal were required. This will be eradicated with the new eco-friendly printer, which uses zero-landfill inks that are solvent-free, ozone-free and meet Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) standards.
Its cardboard eco-carton, which replaces traditional plastic cartridges, can be recycled and the inner plastic ink bag is reused by HP Planet Partners. The latex printer will be able to print company logos on Transition Piece Name Plate signs, which are designed to identify wind turbine locations so that service boats, helicopters and supply ships can pinpoint offshore wind turbines correctly.
“As well as being eco-friendly, our new printer produces a higher quality print than our previous methods,” says Ian.
After setting the safety and corporate signage standard for many of the offshore drilling companies, Seaward Safety is now bringing its expertise to the renewable and new nuclear industries.
The company recently won the contract to supply signage and anti-slip scope on East Anglia ONE’s substation and is currently working with contractors at Sizewell C to supply site safety signage.
“Since this, we have supplied safety signage for a number of transition pieces for wind turbines across the globe,” Ian says.
“We have seen an increase in enquiries for our retro-reflective identification signs – most recently for the Kittiwake offshore nesting facility.”
On March 28, 2023, Seaward Safety will attend the International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum in Baltimore, US, as well as Wind Europe Copenhagen in April.
“This year is going to be a busy year for Seaward, so hopefully you’ll see some new faces as we maintain the quality service our clients expect from us.”
For more information, please visit www.seawardsafety.com
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