Celebrity Cruises- Luxury Cruise Liner

Location: Meyer Werft GmbH in Papenburg, Germany
Project: Celebrity Eclipse, Luxury Cruise Liner finished in Tikkurila MED Products

Building of the hull of the luxury cruise ship Celebrity Eclipse, ordered by cruise line Celebrity Cruises, commenced early 2009 at the shipyard of Meyer Werft GmbH in Papenburg, Germany. The vessel was handed over to its owner in July 2010. The interior decoration work of the ship’s main dining room was carried out by Merima Ltd, using Tikkurila’s MED-approved paint products.

Fire safety requirements met with standard products

The surface materials used in the interior decoration of ships must comply with strict fire safety regulations, and to find such products you need to look no further than Tikkurila standard product range. The Temadur products used in the main dining room of Celebrity Eclipse comply with the requirements of EU’s Maritime Equipment Directive (MED). The walls of the main dining room, Moonlight Sonata, were treated with the semi-gloss Temadur 50 paint. They were finished with a coat of Temadur Clear lacquer, to which a pearlescent substance in aluminium and gold together with a substance creating special effects had been added.

The pearlescent shades and special effects of the Temadur products were tailored to the shipping line’s wishes in close collaboration with Merima and the architect. A total of 3,000 litres of paint was consumed for painting the main dining room. Tikkurila products were also used by other subcontractors involved in the vessel’s interior decoration work.

Visual elements and details crucial in marine interiors

The Italian interior architect Andrea Riecken who designed the interiors of Celebrity Eclipse wanted to create a tranquil, comfortable and warm atmosphere reflecting high quality in the main dining room. This started the search for vibrant, luxurious shades of a particular type not included in the readymade colour samples, to get the right shade for the painted surfaces of the dining room’s walls and ceiling.

Tailoring exactly the right shade

Since we had already used Tikkurila products in two earlier vessels built for the same shipping line, it was natural to contact them also this time. Tikkurila’s technical service prepared close to 40 different colour samples for the architect, and it took several months and repeated evaluations before a decision could finally be made on the main shade for the main dining room.

Tikkurila’s technical service rose up to the challenge 100-percent. They never said ‘No’, but always ‘We will look into this’. It’s no wonder the architect said we probably could not have reached such a good end result with any other paint manufacturer.
A special challenge involved in planning the painting work was the fact that the wall elements were first painted at Merima’s own production facilities in Finland. The possibility to give the structures the final touch and do the touch-up work with spray painting technique at the shipyard in Germany was, according to Mikkonen, very important for a successful end result.

Everyone said it would not be possible to spray paint on board the ship because of the dust that was all around during the building stage and because of the simultaneous welding work. But it all went very well, thanks to the correctly chosen paint and the expertise of the painting contractors – Malerwerkstätten Klinkenborg GmbH – who did the job, Mikkonen points out.

Satisfied customer is the best prize

We made several tests and prepared dozens of colour samples to find the right shade. The paint had to meet strict quality requirements, and the product had to be suitable for industrial use in quickly applied spray painting. The development process lasted almost six months, and when the architect finally approved our latest sample, it felt like a child was finally born. Being able to satisfy the customer’s particular needs always feels like an absolute top moment and a culmination of the process, says Application Engineer Mårten Juslin of Tikkurila.

Currently, Merima and Tikkurila are developing colour samples for Celebrity Silhouette, the fourth vessel in the same ship series, which will be completed at the end of summer 2011.