Ecoshield proves its worth on ten Pleiades tankers

MAY 3, 2016 — Hydrex reports that in the last two and a half years the rudders and nozzles of ten tankers owned by Kifissia, Greece, based Pleiades Shipping Agents S.A. have been coated with Ecoshield, Hydrex’s glassflake reinforced rudder protection coating.

Much to the satisfaction of the owner, several of the vessels have since drydocked again without needing a recoat of the Ecoshield protected areas  

Pleiades Shipping Agents S.A. has over 50 years of continuous experience of purchasing, successfully managing and operating merchant vessels of various types and sizes in both good and poor freight markets. Pleiades’ fleet operates along worldwide trading routes transporting crude oil and petroleum products.

At the end of 2013 Pleiades had the rudder of the crude oil tanker Evrotas coated with Ecoshield and then went on to coat the rudders of other ships. As of April of this year ten tankers had their rudders coated with Ecoshield. Seven also had the coating applied on their nozzles at the same time, two more had the nozzles coated when they came in for a scheduled docking last year after sailing with Ecoshield on their rudders for two years.

No Ecoshield repaint was needed on these vessels, nor will it be during future dockings, says Hydrex, adding that “at the most, quick and easy touch-ups amounting to less than 1% of the surface area will be required.”

Pleiades’ Technical Director, Mr. Miltos Synefias, said that the decision to apply the coating on the first vessel was not an easy one, but that the results obtained made the choice to extend the coating to the other vessels obvious.

Hydrex says that Ecoshield will prevent corrosion damage from reoccurring on an existing ship or can protect the rudder(s) of a newbuild vessel against cavitation and corrosion damage for the life of the vessel. Ecoshield is guaranteed for ten years.