Paint Removal News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaii State Department of Health settle with Marisco Ltd for pollution offences. The violations took place at Marisco's ship repair and drydock facilities at Kalaeloa Barbers Point Harbor on Oahu. This is the largest Clean Water Act civil penalty against a ship repair facility nationwide. The settlement, a consent decree, was lodged with the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and court approval. “To protect Hawaii’s precious coastal waters and coral reefs, ship repair facilities must have pollution controls in place,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest.

The new 10,000 PSI Model 1810 pump has been added to Cat Pump’s line of triplex positive displacement pumps. This pump delivers a low pulsation flow of 3 GPM at 10,000 PSI. The 1810 pump has a low unswept volume [minimal un-evacuated liquid remains in the pumping chamber] resulting in high volumetric efficiency. The 1810 triplex positive displacement pump has a compact footprint for both portable and stationary installation. High strength plunger rods, oversized bearings and chrome-moly crankshaft provide a heavy-duty, durable drive-end.

UltraStrip Systems, Inc. announced that Metro Machine Corp. of Norfolk, Va. has agreed to purchase a high production prototype UltraStrip robotic paint removal system for $2 million. Metro is developing a marine vessel enclosure, paint removal, and coating system, the Metro Ship Coating System, and will be evaluating the UltraStrip prototype for use in the Metro Ship Coating System. Dr. Robert O. Baratta, president and CEO of UltraStrip Systems said, "Metro plans to use the UltraStrip technology in its own shipyard and market the Metro Ship Coating System with the UltraStrip technology to other shipyards and ship repair companies.

Singapore’s SembCorp Marine Ltd has announced a long-term contract from Australia’s North West Shelf venture (NWS) to provide dry-docking, refit, and other marine services, for their fleet of LNG ships. This breakthrough contract signifies the first time that a major LNG consortium has committed itself to a long-term maintenance and refit contract in the region. At a time when Singapore is preparing itself to be a major hub and player in the LNG sector, the selection of SembCorp Marine as a refit partner of NWS, is a great boost to the Singapore marine industry and reinforces the Shipyard Group’s position as one of the area’s leaders in LNG refits.

The Diplomatic Conference held (October 1-5, 2001) by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London adopted the Draft Convention prepared by The Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) of IMO for the "Control of Harmful Anti-fouling Systems for Ships." The Convention has been developed to immediately ban the use of Tributyltin (TBT) globally in antifouling paints to "protect the marine environment". The ban on TBT has come about because TBT has detrimental effects on non-target marine organisms. In November 1999, IMO agreed that a Treaty be developed by the MEPC to ensure a ban on the application of TBT based antifouling paints by January 1, 2003, and a total ban on the use of TBT by January 1, 2008.

US' UltraStrip Systems, the developer of robotic ship hull cleaning equipment, has announced that it has received from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent number US 6,564,815 titled "Air Gap Magnetic Mobile Robot". The new patent allows UltraStrip Systems to further expand its patented coatings removal systems. The advantages to the Air Gap patent over existing UltraStrip patented roller designs are greater adhesion and non-marring of the surface. President and CEO Dr. Robert O. Baratta said, "UltraStrip's latest patent, in our opinion, gives even greater patent protection for our M3500 Robotic System than we had with our earlier patents. UltraStrip Systems has received four other U.S.

University of New Orleans (UNO) researcher Al Daech is afraid of heights; not a good phobia to have when your research involves space shuttles, fuel tanks, and other, big, space-age equipment. He's been trying to conquer his fears since 1981. That's when his work on corrosion fighting collided with his fear of heights. As a Martin Marietta (now called Lockheed Martin) consultant, Daech found himself on a narrow bit of scaffolding 450 ft. in the air, inspecting one of the external fuel tanks on STS-I Columbia, the first space shuttle. Three days before the launch, a pool table-size blister formed in the external tank of the STS-I. Daech's inspection showed an oily rag wiped across the tank caused the blister. He and a crew immediately went to work.

Atlantic Marine-Mobile was granted myriad of cruise ship refurbishment contracts throughout 2001, beginning with Holland America’s Maasdam, which spent approximately 14 days last January at the Alabama yard’s drydock. During this period, the vessel underwent steel prefabrication and installation of a new 2,400 sq. ft. teen room, which was put in place via the yard’s 275-ton bridge crane Goliath. The yard also completed a major cruise ship conversion to a Zenon system on Holland America’s Zaandam in order to achieve the highest level of environmental compliance. The vessel, which is the second Holland America ship to undergo voluntary installation of a Zenon system…