Two Turkish shipyard newbuilds get Ecospeed protection

Tanker after receiving Ecospeed coating at Akdeniz Shipyard

FEBRUARY 14, 2018 — Antwerp, Belgium, headquartered Subsea Industries reports that last year two newbuild vessels at shipyards in Turkey were given lifelong protection with its specialist hull and rudder coatings, Ecospeed and Ecoshield, with a third planned for 2018.

A shallow draft anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessel was coated at the Atlas Shipyard in Gölcük and an oil tanker was given the same treatment at the Akdeniz Shipyard in Ceyhan.

The owners of the AHTS vessel selected the Subsea Industries coatings, against strong competition, because of their proven performance in polar waters. The Ice-Class 1A, 65 m tug will carry out anchor handling and oil recovery duties in the ecologically sensitive Arctic in compliance with the IMO Polar Code requirements.

Orkun Çomuoğlu who is the managing director at Amat Engineering, Subsea Industries’ agent in Turkey secured the contract and said: “This is a super ice-class vessel and required extensive hull protection for the operations the vessel will undertake.”

Manuel Hof, Production Executive and NACE Coatings Inspector at Subsea Industries, explained that the Polar Code recommends the application of abrasion resistant, low friction coatings to vessels operating in ice-covered waters.

“There is a risk that conventional antifoulings can degrade rapidly in polar ice, leach chemicals or leave paint fragments behind when ice impacts damage the coating. There is no such risk with a hard-type coating. Ecospeed and Ecoshield are tough, durable and highly abrasion resistant protective coatings.” said Hof.

Ecospeed is a certified abrasion resistant coating. Owners are allowed to reduce the thickness of the steel of the ice belt if this area is coated with Ecospeed. This gives them a significant financial benefit during newbuild projects. Ecospeed is one of only a few coatings that have received this certificate.

RRS Ernest Shackleton, RRS James Clark Ross and HMS Protector, all of British Antarctic Survey, have been coated with Subsea Industries products and thecoatings have also been selected for the newbuild research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough, the biggest commercial shipbuilding contract in Britain for 30 years.

Easy to apply on newbuild and existing vessels

Because the Subsea Industries coatings have quick and flexible overcoating times, application can be scheduled around other work taking place. For both the shipyards in Turkey this was a major benefit as it resulted in minimal interference with their other activities.

Ecospeed only requires two layers of 500 µm each. This is a big advantage compared with other hull coatings. A classic antifouling coating systems can easily have five or more coating layers that need to be applied and some of the newer silicone based hull coatings also consist of four to five layers of coating. Compared to this, a two coat application is quicker, cheaper and more flexible.

The purpose of Ecospeed is to offer a long-lasting, non-toxic protection to all types of ships. This is done by providing a system that keeps the hull very smooth and free of fouling for the service life of the vessel with minimal repair and no replacement.