Abstract
The marine ship new construction market, with its large tanker ships, has changed in recent years following the unfortunate M/T Exxon Valdez, M/T Erika and M/T Prestige incidents, and the European’s early attempted early single skin ship phase out regulations. Significant modifications in ship design, including a double hull structure, have followed passage in the US Congress of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90). Regulations on double hull bulk ships are expected to follow shortly. The increased areas to be coated on each new construction project, coupled with the increased number of ships produced each year by each of the major yards, has created the necessity for a dramatic increase in coating production throughput at these yards. These very large areas must be closely maintained, and now, must conform to ever tightening regulatory requirements and inspections to compete in today’s market.
This change in the internal structure of “new builds” offers an opportunity for reconsidering the present-day preferred coating application processes and current formulations of marine paint systems. To effectively meet these challenges requires some modification/“rethinking” of organic cargo tank lining product formulations and application processes.
This paper addresses some of the major and significant structural changes in marine architecture and some of the opportunities (challenges) these present to the paint manufacturers supplying the needed coatings into this marine industry.
The marine shipyards’ production currently appear to be dependent on normal airless spray application equipment, pot-life limitations/problems, the necessity to apply multiply coats, traditionally one or more days apart, and other ingrained “holy” limitations. The present solution is fast curing (and “lower temperature”) products that in many cases have resulted in brittle coating systems that have not been able to perform as required to meet demands by the regulatory environment over the ship’s life. The industry will reach a point where it is liberated from these “dependencies” when it is conceivable that it becomes possible to use 100% solids epoxy technology to solve the yards throughput needs and at the same time achieve the quality that the regulatory environment requires over the ships’ life. Any new coating systems developed should function with a minimum of maintenance over the ships predictable service life!
