Halyard Marine Wins Award for Engine Silencer

by Powerboat-world on 21 Jun 2007 Halyard Marine Ltd, a UK manufacturer of marine exhaust systems, has won the Spirit of Innovation Award for its new Resonator Silencer at this year's Seawork exhibition in Southampton.

Launched in December 2006, Halyard's Resonator Silencer filters out specific noise frequencies from a band centred around the engine's firing frequency, whether in a six-cylinder engine or a V16, thereby reducing the overall engine noise emitted.

The unique ‘resonator’ silencer can reduce engine noise to such a level that it becomes quieter than the sound of the boat passing through the water (RCD 25m drive-by test).

These bespoke silencers incorporate a reactive resonator which is tuned to filter out specific problem noise frequencies from a band centred around the engine’s firing frequency, whether an in-line 4 cylinder engine or a V16, thus significantly reducing the overall engine noise emitted.

While resonator technology is not new – it has been in use for many years in the automotive sector – Halyard is the first company to apply the principle to water-injected marine silencers. The technology has been welcomed by many of the leading boat manufacturers and is already standard fit on Fairline’s new Phantom 48 and now on Sunseeker models.

In addition to offering remarkable improvements in noise emissions, Halyard’s Resonator Silencer can be engineered to be significantly smaller than conventional silencers, offering enormous space-saving benefits to yacht designers and boat builders.

The new Resonator Silencer is being manufactured in the UK by Halyard, the only company in the world able to manufacture an entire exhaust solution in-house and also the only company worldwide to have Lloyd’s Type Approval on its entire range of GRP exhaust components, hose and silicone couplings.

'The Spirit of Innovation Award celebrates a real breakthrough in silencing water-injected marine exhaust systems with the ability to tune the system to attack one or more particular frequencies,' says James Grazebrook, Halyard's managing director. 'This breakthrough is equally important to commercial vessels as operators currently endure hours at noise levels which can be close to the maximum allowed in industry.'

Halyard shares the award with Southampton University, which collaborated with the company over a number of years by combining the school's acoustic skills with Halyard's knowledge of marine exhausts. 'The award will be a huge help in establishing the product in the commercial sector,' adds Grazebrook.

Halyard, which is based in Whaddon, Salisbury, claims to be the largest designer and manufacturer of marine exhaust systems in Europe. The company employs some 90 people and specialises on applications for craft between 15m-100m (49ft-328ft) in length.