USCG Press release

ISP LIFEJACKET WINS US COASTGUARD APPROVAL

International Safety Products Ltd (ISPL) has become the first British lifejacket manufacturer to win US Coastguard approval for one of its products. This follows a detailed assessment of the lifejacket and the company’s manufacturing practices and it effectively opens the valuable US leisure boating market for this lifejacket.

It is a little-known fact that ISP is the World’s largest manufacturer of inflatable marine lifejackets. This relative anonymity is due to almost all of its civilian products being manufactured for re-branding and sale by well-known names in the marine equipment market. The specialised and highly adaptable manufacturing processes at the company’s factory on Merseyside, UK, enable customers to specify their own colours, trim, features and corporate branding of the chosen style of a fully-approved ISP lifejacket. This makes it possible for a wide variety of organisations or marine equipment suppliers to add a profitable line of lifejackets to their product range. USCG approval now makes this capability available for companies in, or supplying, the United States.

The USCG certificate of approval has been granted for ISP’s Shannon lifejacket. This model is an important general purpose leisure lifejacket that provides 150 N of buoyancy and features ISP’s unique patented Wave Barrier interlocking lobe design. When the lifejacket is inflated its assymetrical design eliminates the space that is created between the lobes on traditional lifejackets. In extreme weather conditions, this channel is known to act as a funnel that can direct waves into the wearer’s face and result in drowning. The ISP Wave Barrier eliminates this hazard and customers can specify the manufacture of their own unique version of the Shannon lifejacket for as few as 250 units.

In announcing the receipt of the USCG certification, Geoff Billington, sales director of ISP said; “The US Coastguard is extremely thorough in its assessment of products and manufacturers. Now that the process has been completed successfully for ISP, the US leisure marine market is, for the first time, open to products from a British lifejacket manufacturer. We believe that the added safety features provided by our lifejackets will now enable wearers in the United States to benefit from a higher standard of safety than has currently been available to them.”

-ENDS-