Paint Layers News

Subsea Industries coating systems offer many benefits to shipowners, ship managers and operators. Applying Ecospeed (or any other Subsea Industries coating) to a vessel can save much worry, time and hassle for superintendents and shipyards during drydockings, as well as save expenses for the owner. Like all Subsea Industries products, Ecospeed is an extremely hard coating system with optimized hydrodynamics that can easily be maintained in service. This has a huge potential for reducing total cost of ownership of the vessel.

Ecospeed gives a very thorough & lasting defense against cavitation & corrosion damage for a ship hull’s entire service life. The coating equally provides the rudder with an impenetrable protective layer while its flexibility enables absorption of the forces that are produced by cavitation. This prevents the damage normally caused by this phenomenon. Without proper protection against cavitation and the resulting erosion and corrosion damage, the financial consequences can be severe.

In what follows Ecospeed takes a closer look at how applying Ecospeed to a vessel can save much worry, time and hassle for superintendents and shipyards during drydockings, as well as save expenses for the owner. Despite some supplier claims to the contrary, almost no underwater hull coating provides for the most basic objective which is to protect the steel from corrosion and prevent the hull from ‘roughening’ with age. When ships come into drydock, it is not uncommon to observe delamination of multiple paint layers. There is often also evidence of corrosion and hull roughening.

When a 294-meter cruise vessel came into drydock in the Bahamas after sailing with Ecospeed for two years, less than 1% of the underwater hull needed touch-ups and no new paint layers were required on the rest of the underwater hull. As a consequence the technical operations that needed to be carried out on the vessel were very easy to plan because no repaint needed to be added to the schedule. Moreover, the vessel could leave drydock earlier than would have been the case if an extensive repaint had been required.

In February a 200-meter ro/ro vessel was given a protective Ecospeed coating in Gibraltar. Ecospeed has a life expectancy of twenty-five years and will therefore protect the vessel against cavitation and corrosion damage for the remainder of its service life without the need for a full repainting during future drydockings. Any Ecospeed application can easily be adapted to yard’s schedule or to unpredictable weather conditions because the coating requires only two layers and the second coat can be applied any time between about four hours and several weeks or even months after the first coat.

As a consequence of the current economic climate, more and more ship owners are forced to lay one or more of their ships up for longer periods. This has, however, no adverse effect on an Ecospeed coating which can always be restored to its optimum condition, regardless of how much fouling has attached itself to the hull while the vessel has been laying idle. Ecospeed is ideally suited for ships during lay-ups because of its impermeability. This gives the coating its excellent…

Ecospeed reported that when a 965-ft cruise vessel came into drydock in the Bahamas last month after sailing with the company’s hull coating for two years, less than 1% of the underwater hull needed touch ups and no new paint layers were required on the rest of the underwater hull. As a consequence the technical operations that needed to be carried out on the vessel were very easy to plan because no repaint needed to be added to the schedule. Moreover, the vessel could leave drydock earlier than would have been the case if an extensive repaint had been required.

As a consequence of the current economic climate, more and more ship owners are forced to lay one or more of their ships up for longer periods. This has, however, no adverse effect on an Ecospeed coating which can always be restored to its optimum condition, regardless of how much fouling has attached itself to the hull while the vessel has been laying idle. Ecospeed is ideally suited for ships which have a stationary period because an impermeable barrier is created during application. This gives the coating its excellent and durable anti-corrosive properties and protects the underwater hull against mechanical damage. Despite the aggressive nature of certain types of fouling, no rust or damage to the steel will be present on the underwater hull of the vessel after cleaning.