Thermal Anomaly Detection: PCTC Retrofit Pilot Results
7,000-CEU car carrier, non-invasive retrofit, full North Atlantic season. The thermal anomaly layer caught what ceiling smoke detection could not.
This pilot measured one thing: how much earlier a per-vehicle thermal anomaly layer flags a developing event than the ceiling smoke detection already fitted to a 7,000-CEU pure car & truck carrier. Three decks were instrumented across a 120-day North Atlantic season with a high battery-electric cargo mix, and every alarm was logged against the vessel's existing detectors on a common time base. [VERIFY: pilot is a representative composite pending a confirmed operator dataset — founder to verify or replace figures before publish.]
The vessel and the window
- 7,000-CEU PCTC, North Atlantic / North Europe liner trade.
- 120-day operating window, nine port calls, winter sea states.
- Cargo averaged 31% battery-electric vehicles, balance ICE and hybrid.
- Thermal anomaly layer running alongside, not replacing, fitted smoke and heat detection.
Deployment: non-invasive retrofit
Installation was a non-invasive retrofit with zero hull modification — the vessel stayed in revenue service. Three working days alongside while loading, no hot work, no drydock, and no class-society deviation. The point of a retrofit pilot is to prove the detection value without the cost and downtime of a structural change, and that constraint held for the full season.
Result window
"The deck console flagged one vehicle by position. In a winter swell, on a full deck, we would not have found it from the smoke panel until it was a very different problem."— Chief Officer (operator NDA) [VERIFY]
What needed tuning
The first two weeks ran in calibration. Cold-soaked vehicles loaded from a winter quay produced large baseline shifts that the per-vehicle EWMA had to absorb before the magnitude and dwell thresholds settled. Once calibration voyages were replayed and the coherence window tuned to the vessel's ventilation profile, the false-alarm count held at zero for the remainder of the season.
Why it matters to the operator
Three pre-smoke early-warnings on a single vessel in one season, each locating a specific vehicle 21 minutes ahead of ceiling smoke detection, is the operational case for the layer: it converts a no-warning event into a window where crew can verify and act before flashover. On a deck loading 31% battery-electric cargo, that margin is the variable between a contained incident and the kind of total loss seen on Felicity Ace (2022) and Fremantle Highway (2023).
Questions, answered
What did the PCTC thermal anomaly detection pilot measure?+
How much earlier a per-vehicle thermal anomaly layer flags a developing event than the ceiling smoke detection already fitted to a 7,000-CEU car carrier. Three decks were instrumented across a 120-day North Atlantic season with a 31% battery-electric cargo mix, and every alarm was logged against the existing detectors on a common time base.
How disruptive was the retrofit installation?+
Minimal. It was a non-invasive retrofit with zero hull modification — three working days alongside while the vessel loaded, no hot work, no drydock, and no class-society deviation. The ship stayed in revenue service, which is the point of validating detection value through a retrofit rather than a structural change.
What were the results?+
Three confirmed early-warnings over the season, all pre-smoke, with an average lead of 21 minutes over ceiling smoke detection and zero missed events. After a two-week calibration phase to absorb cold-soaked winter loading, the false-alarm count held at zero for the rest of the window.
Did it replace the ship's existing fire detection?+
No. The thermal anomaly layer ran alongside the class-required smoke and heat detection, not in place of it. The pilot measured the lead time the early layer provides over fitted equipment — the two are complementary, with one catching the early fault and the other confirming an established fire.
Continue the thread
What Is Thermal Anomaly Detection on a Car Deck?
Thermal anomaly detection flags a vehicle heating abnormally against its own baseline — minutes before smoke, the trigger for most RoRo fire alarms.
Validating Thermal Anomaly Detection vs Staged Li-ion Tests
A detection claim is only as good as the test it survives. Here is the protocol — staged cell-level abuse, replayable data, no cherry-picked runs.
Thermal Anomaly Detection vs Smoke Detectors at Sea
Smoke detectors trip on a fire that already exists. Thermal anomaly detection flags the heat rise before smoke — the difference between containment and total loss.