US Navy’s aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has taken steps toward reducing noise during Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) or conducting operations in the middle of the Gulf.
According to the Navy Safety Center, in 2014 noise-induced hearing loss was the Navy’s number one occupational health expense. The resulting consequences to the Navy from hearing loss include lost time, reduced productivity, military disability settlements and expenses for medical treatment, such as hearing aids.
During RCOH, Sailors aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) are taking the lead in minimizing noise-induced hazards. A group of Lincoln Sailors assigned to the Deck Department have been trained to apply a special coating of paint on the bulkheads of some of the ship’s common areas. This paint is designed to reduce noise and vibration within these spaces and will be evaluated for future use.
The spray the team uses is a sound and vibration dampening paint specifically designed for marine applications.
Ensign Joel Newberry, Lincoln’s assistant first lieutenant said:
It’s more coating than a paint. It has properties that will dampen the vibrations and noise that transmit through metal bulkheads said. The coating is being applied to living and working spaces that are directly affected by the high-level noise caused by flight deck operations.
Lincoln is currently undergoing RCOH at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries in Newport News, Virginia.
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Image: US Navy