Value for money
Japanese company Chugoku Marine Paints (CMP) has introduced two new hull coatings at Nor-Shipping, which the company says will offer advantages to shipowners in terms of value for money.
Like other paint companies, CMP has been looking for an anti-fouling that can provide similar value and performance to TBT. CMP believes that it has been involved in this quest longer than most; by the time the TBT ban became reality, its Seagrandprix 1000 silyl coating was already on the market, and similar technology has the since been adopted by other manufacturers. This paint has now proved itself over 20 years.
Other CMP developments such as copper-free self-polishing ionomer based products have also proved successful, delivering, like Seagrandprix, up to 60 months in service.
The first of the new products is Seagrandprix 1000 L, a development of the original TBT-free product. This too is a fully hydrolysing undiluted silyl, but with a more advanced formulation, which CMP says makes it economical in thickness required for long in-service periods, thanks to it being higher in volume solids and using high-quality raw materials.
The other new coating, which the company describes as beyond silyl, is Seaflo Neo, which is the result of several years research into a paint that meets practical requirements during drydocking while providing fuel savings for the shipowner and environmental benefits for both owner and shipyard. Seaflo Neo is based on the highest volume solids, lowering VOCs, from a fully hydrolysing material. Its most distinctive feature, though, is the ultra-smooth surface claimed from its self-levelling characteristics, such as the ability to minimise orange peel effect and the effect of overspray droplets on the surface.
The smooth surface offers low friction resistance, matching CMPs low surface energy Bioclean coating in this respect, and enabling fuel savings of 3% to 5% in comparison with conventional silyl coatings.
CMP says that Seaflo Neo can be applied by conventional airless spray methods, and provides excellent static fouling performance. It has undergone extensive tests which have identified, among other advantages, the potential to achieve 90-month docking intervals for various ship types.
Source: The Motorship
