Oldham Seals Limited · Chichester, England

Fire-resistant flexible hose and bellows, engineered and proven for naval service.

Oldham Seals designs, manufactures, tests and manages Jetpac® flexible pipe systems for the fuel, cooling, ballast, bilge, fire-main and propulsion systems that have to keep working under shock, vibration and fire. Designed to your pipework. Type approved. Supported on board for the life of the vessel.

Discuss your application What challenge are you solving? ↓

Send your requirements: fluid, pressure, temperature, movement and space. Our engineers confirm feasibility and the standard we would qualify to.

Every class

of Royal Navy ship and submarine in service

Sole supplier

for new-generation ships and next-generation submarines

15 min at 1,100°C

Def Stan 02-345 fire test, pressurised and vibrated

No known failure

in operation, to our knowledge

Since 1964

designed and manufactured in Chichester, England

Type approved and certified

View certifications
Lloyd's RegisterType approval
DNVApproval
ABSApproval
GLGermanischer Lloyd
MODApproval
ISO 9001BS EN ISO 9001:2015
BFPAMember
RAPRAMember
Cyber EssentialsCertified

Solutions

What challenge are you solving?

Start with the problem in front of you. Each card points to the Jetpac® products, or the Jetrac service, that answer it.

Vibration & Noise

"Every vibration from the machinery ends up in the compartment."

A high-shock, high-vibration construction that absorbs movement instead of transmitting it, and cuts structure-borne noise.

Relevant hoses, bellows and ducting
  • Rubber bellowsExpansion and vibration isolation at machinery connections, with no restraining rings.
  • Jetpac® flexible hose assembliesStraight or preformed, taking the movement instead of passing it into the structure.
  • DuctingFlexible air and fume ducting that isolates vibration at the connection.
Reduce vibration & noise

Movement & Misalignment

"The run moves, expands and never quite lines up."

Shaped to your pipework layout, not the other way round.

Relevant products
  • Flexible preformed hose assembliesAny angle from 0° to 180°, leg lengths set by your layout, movement in all three planes.
  • Straight hose assembliesBuilt to your length and end fittings.
  • Rubber bellowsWhere the system expands and moves.
  • DuctingFlexible air and fume ducting for systems that have to move.
Accommodate movement & misalignment

Fire & Extreme Conditions

"It has to survive a compartment fire and keep holding pressure."

The fire resistance is in the rubber itself, so there are no fire sleeves to fit or inspect. Def Stan 02-345: 15 minutes at 1,100°C while pressurised and vibrated.

Relevant fire-resistant Jetpac® products
  • Jetpac® flexible pipe systemsHose assemblies in one integrally fire-resistant material.
  • Rubber bellowsThe same fire-resistant construction, without fire sleeves.
Meet fire & extreme-environment requirements

Corrosion & Pipe Failure

"The metallic pipework has corroded or cracked. Again."

Replace the rigid metallic run with a flexible one: no restraining rings, less weight, one material family across sea water, fuels and oils.

Relevant Jetpac® products
  • Jetpac® flexible pipe systemsA flexible assembly in place of the rigid run, with fittings in the alloy the environment demands.
  • Flexible preformed hose assembliesTurn the corner without a fabricated elbow.
  • Suction entry feetFor fuel, ballast and bilge tanks: they cut suction loss and protect the tank bottom.
Address corrosion & pipe failure

Hose Integrity & Replacement

"Nobody can say which hoses on board are due, or when."

Each hose has a recommended replacement date, and its replacement should be ordered before that date arrives.

The Jetrac service
  • Jetrac hose integrity managementHoses on board surveyed, tagged and registered, other makers' included. Replacement forecast before it is due, then supplied and installed.
Improve hose integrity & lifecycle
The Jetpac® range

View all products

The full Jetpac® range, bespoke assemblies and fittings included. Send us the drawing.
Discuss your application Explore all solutions

On board

Where Jetpac® fits on board.

More than 300 shipboard applications, mapped by system and compartment by engineers who have served at sea. The systems are the ones every naval engineer knows.

Illustrative surface shipSide profile · 9 systems
WL AFT FORWARD
1
Steering gear

Steering gear and its hydraulic systems.

One material family across

Sea waterDieso F-76AVCAT F-44OX30OX33OX40OM100OMD113OEP80Fresh waterPotable waterChilled water
200°CContinuous
250°CIntermittent
Naval surface ships Naval submarines Not sure which product fits? Discuss your application

Why flexible systems matter

On a ship, the flexible hose is the smallest part in the system and the first place a commodity choice fails.

It sits exactly where the movement, the heat and the shock are. That is why it is flexible, and why the choice matters more than its size suggests.

  • Where the system moves

    Machinery and pipework move and expand. The flexible assembly takes that movement so the rest of the system does not have to.

  • Where it shakes

    Shock and vibration reach the flexible assembly first. It absorbs them, which stops them passing through to the rest of the system.

  • Where it has to survive

    In a fire environment the assembly still has to maintain pressure. Jetpac® does this with its integrated fire protection, eliminating the need for fire sleeves.

Three planes of movement
Flexible, and qualified for it.Fire-resistant in the rubber itself, so no fire sleeves. Type approved before it goes on board.

The alternatives, and where they stop.

Read the paper: Flexibility Matters
AlternativeRigid pipework

Corrodes, cracks and carries every vibration into the system.

AlternativeMetallic flexible hose

Limited movement across multiple planes, so less suited where movement comes from several directions at once. A rubber hose is a true multi-axis connection.

AlternativeIndustrial hose

No naval type approval. And in a fire environment, Oldham Seals hoses are low toxicity compared with some industrial hoses.

The Jetpac® answerFlexible, and qualified for it

Movement in all three planes. Fire-resistant in the rubber itself, so no fire sleeves. Type approved before it goes on board.

Your requirements, our engineers

Discuss your application.

Send your requirements: fluid, pressure, temperature, movement and space, and a drawing if you have one. Our engineers confirm feasibility and the standard we would qualify to.

Discuss your application Book a hose survey

Jetpac® + Jetrac

One company manufactures the hose and keeps it in service.

Jetpac® is the product: fire-resistant flexible pipe systems, designed and manufactured in Chichester. Jetrac is the service: the Oldham Seals field division that surveys, registers, replaces and installs flexible hoses on board. Most suppliers stop at delivery. That is where Jetrac starts.

The product
Jetpac®

Jetpac® flexible pipe systems

Straight and preformed hose assemblies and bellows in one integrally fire-resistant material, built to your pipework and qualified before they go on board.

See the Jetpac® range
The service
Jetrac

Jetrac hose integrity management

Engineers on board to survey flexible hoses, tag them, record their condition and criticality in a web-accessible register, forecast replacement and install. Other manufacturers' hoses included.

Jetrac Hose Integrity Management

The Jetrac lifecycle story

Every surveyed hose, known and dated.

A hose is recommended for replacement on a 5-, 10- or 15-year periodicity. This is what happens between fitting it and replacing it.

Back to step 1 for the next survey. One loop, for the life of the vessel. Thousandsof hoses surveyed by Jetrac every year.
Three businesses, one fluid system.

Oldham Seals designs and manufactures it. Jetrac surveys, registers and installs it. 'O' Rings Limited, a Trelleborg Sealing Solutions partner, supplies the seals around it.

Book a hose survey How the three work together

Global installed base

In service with navies around the world.

Oldham Seals supplies the UK MOD and its prime contractors, and exports to navies around the world. The map names countries only: never a class, a programme or what was supplied.

Chichester, England Canada United States Norway Denmark Netherlands Germany Belgium France Spain Italy Greece India Australia United Kingdom: designed and manufactured in Chichester, England
Designed and manufactured in ChichesterExported to

Exported to

  • United Kingdom
  • Australia
  • Belgium
  • Canada
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • India
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Spain
  • United States
  • …and more
Open the global experience map

Markets

Defence is the business. Everything else is built to the same standard.

Almost everything Oldham Seals manufactures goes to sea with naval surface ships and submarines, for the UK MOD, its prime contractors and export navies. The commercial marine, offshore and specialty work we take on gets the naval qualification path, not a lighter one.

Defence

Naval surface ships

In service on every class of Royal Navy surface ship, and sole supplier for new-generation ships.

Naval surface ships
Defence

Naval submarines

In service on every class of Royal Navy submarine, and sole supplier for next-generation submarines.

Naval submarines
Commercial

Commercial marine

Roll-on roll-off ferries and other commercial operators, supplied to the same fire, shock and vibration standard.

Commercial marine
Commercial

Offshore and specialty applications

Offshore and energy, rail traction, fluid power and industrial work that needs a shape, a pressure or a fluid a catalogue cannot meet.

Offshore and specialty applications
Explore markets

Engineering and lifecycle support

Define. Design. Prove. Sustain.

One loop, one company, for the life of the platform. Others can match a step. The loop is the part they cannot copy.

1

Define.

Send the requirements, and a drawing if you have one. Our engineers confirm feasibility and the standard to qualify to.

2

Design.

Preform geometry and leg lengths modelled in 2D and 3D CAD to your pipework. Fittings machined in-house in the alloy the environment demands.

3

Prove.

Built in Chichester, hydrostatically tested, qualified in our own test house, released with full certification.

4

Sustain.

Surveyed, registered, replaced and installed on board by Jetrac.

Six services behind the loop.

Explore engineering and services
Prove
Qualification and certification support

Qualified to the relevant Defence Standards and your type-approval requirements, with release certification for every assembly.

Qualification and certification
Prove
In-house testing

Fire, endurance, vacuum, pressure, pressure-pulsing with deflection and impulse, on rigs built to the standards you specify. For our hoses, and for anybody's.

In-house testing
Sustain
Installation support

Exchange and installation on board by Jetrac engineers.

Installation support
Sustain
Hose and system assessments

On-board surveys of flexible hoses and bellows, from a baseline survey to recategorisation.

Hose and system assessments
Sustain
Asset and replacement planning

Replacement forecast against upkeep and refit periods, then manufactured and supplied.

Asset and replacement planning
SustainNew
Jetrac hose integrity management

The web-accessible register of the hoses surveyed on board: condition, criticality, test history and dates.

Jetrac hose integrity management
See how we engineer and support it.
Explore engineering and services Ask about testing

Frequently asked

Questions engineers ask before they call.

Your question is not here?

Send us the requirements and a drawing if you have one. An engineer will answer it.

Discuss your application

Fire-resistant. The resistance is in the rubber itself, so there are no fire sleeves to fit. The standard is Def Stan 02-345: 15 minutes at 1,100°C while pressurised and vibrated.

Lloyd's Register type approval, DNV, ABS, Germanischer Lloyd and MOD approval, under a BS EN ISO 9001:2015 quality system. Certificates and approval letters are on the Certifications page.

From very small bore to very large, and from very low pressure to very high. The range is too broad for a table to do it justice, so send us the requirements and we will confirm the specification.

Hoses are recommended for replacement on a 5-, 10- or 15-year periodicity, depending on the application. Jetrac tracks the dates of the hoses it surveys, so the replacement is ordered before the hose is due.

Yes. The tests we run on our own hoses in our test house, we run on anybody's.

Yes. They are tagged and entered on the same register as ours.

Yes. We do not publish what we build for you, and no class, programme or vessel is named anywhere on this site.

Contact

Discuss your application.

Send us the fluid, pressure, temperature, movement and space you are working with, and a drawing if you have one. Our sales team routes it to the right engineer. You get feasibility and the standard we would qualify to within one working day. Your platform stays confidential: we do not publish what we build for you.

Discuss your application Book a hose survey
+44 (0)1243 782296 sales@oldhamseals.co.uk