Portascanner Watertight PLUS

Water ingress is one of the leading causes of cargo damage and insurance claims in global shipping. Effective hatch cover and door integrity testing is therefore critical for protecting cargo, maintaining vessel safety, and meeting class and regulatory requirements.

Hatch covers and watertight doors are structural barriers, typically built from steel plate and fitted with sealing elements such as gaskets and compression bars, which together create the watertight boundary between the cargo hold and the outside environment. If any of these components deteriorate, become misaligned or lose compression, even small defects can allow water to enter the hold.

Regular thickness checks of steel plating and systematic testing of sealing components are essential to verify that these barriers still perform as designed. By identifying corrosion, loss of material and compromised seals at an early stage, operators can carry out timely repairs, avoid costly cargo claims, and demonstrate due diligence towards regulators, insurers and charterers.

Prevent water ingress – ultrasonic hatch cover testing with Portascanner

Portascanner® WATERTIGHT PLUS is a handheld watertight integrity tester for inspecting the watertightness and weathertightness of hatch covers, watertight doors and multi-cable transit seals in marine environments. It is a portable, handheld solution that can be used by a single operator to test a large number of different hatches and seals in a single quick and easy inspection.

Test Hatch Covers as Recommended by P&I Clubs

Ultrasonic hatch cover testing is the only recognised method by P&I Clubs around the world in determining weathertightness in hatch covers. Using the Portascanner® WATERTIGHT PLUS, the crew can locate leaks and report them in decibels (dB) and percentage Open Hatch Value (%OHV), which is a classification society requirement.

The hatch cover is considered weathertight when the %OHV is less than 10%, and the Portascanner® WATERTIGHT PLUS calculates this figure automatically to enable quick and seamless testing by the crew. This calculation requirement complies with DNVGL-CP-0484 and IACS URZ17.

Regulatory Compliance With Ease

Portascanner® WATERTIGHT PLUS’ ABS type approval and RINA Classification Society acceptance establish it as an industry-approved solution to watertight integrity testing and regulatory compliance.

IMO SOLAS Reg II-1/21.3 states, “The watertight doors and all mechanisms and indicators connected therewith shall be periodically inspected at sea at least once a week.”

Conventional tests to meet this regulation, like the Chalk test and Hose test, are inferior to the quick and clean testing process of Portascanner® WATERTIGHT PLUS. These processes require multiple operators, take longer, and in the case of the hose test, can be messy.

Portascanner® WATERTIGHT PLUS is used by a single operator to detect leaks in the hatch or structure, and it can give an exact value of the severity of the leak. This allows these weekly inspections to be conducted faster.