Over the last few months a number of vessels have had their rudders coated with Ecoshield at shipyards in China, Singapore, Germany, Italy and South-Korea. These include several newbuild container vessels, a cruise ship and a Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability tanker (MARS). The applications will protect the rudders against cavitation and corrosion damage for the remainder of the vessels’ service lives.
Some of the owners are returning customers, some are new ones, but all of them experienced the same problem: severe cavitation damage on the rudders of their vessels coated with conventional coatings. The returning customers had seen firsthand that Ecoshield solved the problem on their other rudders and wanted the same protection for the rest of their fleet. The new ones saw the excellent result obtained by other owners and chose Ecoshield to prevent corrosion and cavitation damage from reoccurring.
Cavitation tests in a flow channel, carried out in Grenoble, have confirmed that Ecoshield performs extremely well even under severe cavitation. The coating 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. As a result of the application no repainting is needed during future dockings.
Proof of this has been given over the last couple of years in numerous cases. Last year m/v Maersk Deva came into drydock five years after application without having to replace Ecoshield. More recently another container vessel drydocked in Shanghai. The vessel had been sailing with Ecoshield on its rudder for two years and, as expected, the coating was still in excellent condition.
Groundbreaking protection for all running gear
Besides offering rudder protection, Ecoshield is also suitable for thrusters, azimuth thrusters, azipods, thruster nozzles, kort nozzles, thruster tunnels and other underwater ship gear which needs special protection from corrosion. The extra strength coating protects these areas for the service life of the ship. There is no need for recoating or major repair. For this reason the propeller enhancement fins of several of the container vessels were also coated with Ecoshield, as was the thruster tunnel of the cruise vessel.
The coating can be applied at the newbuild stage or in drydock for ships already in service. Overcoating time can be as short as three hours, which means that the two coats required can usually be applied in one single day.
Evidence of the success of the product is the number of companies which began by coating a rudder on one ship experimentally and went on to coat other running gear on the same ship and the rudders and running gear of other ships.
Most are converting their entire fleet as a result of seeing the pristine condition of the coated areas after sailing for several years (some up to ten years and counting).
You can give the rudders and running gear of your vessels the same lifelong protection. Contact one of our offices for more information.
