Thordon Bearings has praised the government’s Innovative Solutions Canada initiative for encouraging more of the country’s entrepreneurs, innovators and manufacturers to design solutions in support of Transport Canada’s Ocean Protection Plan.
The $1.5 billion plan, about which the fourth annual report was published in June, is the largest investment ever made to protect Canada’s coasts and waterways. The initiative, launched in 2016, is intended to make shipping safer, provide greater protection to aquatic species, and generally improve Canada’s ability to prevent and respond to marine incidents.
Since the introduction of the Innovative Solutions Canada(ISC) program in 2020, then designated the Build in Canada Innovation Program(BCIP), the government has invested more than $90 million into Canadian technologies and solutions, some of which are designed specifically to benefit the country’s maritime, fisheries and coastal defence industries.
The Burlington-based manufacturer, an early beneficiary of the original BCIP program, was awarded $339,000 to further develop and fit the innovative shaft seal to Canadian Coast Guard vessels.
Thordon, the manufacturer of award winning, zero pollution propeller shaft bearings, wanted to expand its range with other products intended for application to a vessel’s propeller shaft.
Essentially, the SeaThigor is an extremely robust shaft seal consisting of an inflatable Safe Return to Port(SRTP) emergency seal, allowing the shaft to continue to turn and return the ship safely to port under its own power, even if the primary seal is damaged. The seal prevents water flooding into the ship, potentially averting catastrophe for ship and crew. No other seal currently has this built-in capability.
Since 2010, the government has helped hundreds of Canadian companies develop solutions and systems that are attractive to both domestic and international markets.
This support has continued in the first and second phase funding under the new Innovative Solutions Canada initiative, with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard alone having released more than $3 million to a myriad of maritime-related projects.
For Thordon Bearings, the program resulted in the Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers CCG Amundsen, CCG Hudson, and CCG Pierre Radisson becoming the first ever vessels to adopt the new seal technology. More installations are expected following a recent wave of new national and international shipbuilding contracts.