Lloyd’s Register to Assess Nippon Paint Marine’s Coatings
The assessment will create an accurate understanding of speed loss performance, fuel and emissions reduction, and will enable shipowners to select optimal hull coatings for their vessels. Lloyd’s Register’s modelling will combine multiple data sources.
Nippon Paint Marine and Lloyd’s Register (LR) have signed a technical collaboration agreement to assess the long-term speed loss performance of Nippon Paint Marine’s FASTAR and AQUATERRAS coatings. LR’s independent evaluation will enhance confidence in the hull coatings’ performance over time. It will also establish a benchmark for assessing and comparing coating and vessel performance that can support decision-making for the future.
Nippon Paint Marine stated that the project will look into a broad range of vessels, including container carriers, bulk carriers, tankers, VLCCs, PCCs and cruise vessels, coated with FASTAR or AQUATERRAS. FASTAR is a low-friction, self-polishing anti-fouling coating which uses a unique hydrophilic and hydrophobic nanodomain (nanotechnology) resin structure in the coating film and is the latest technology in Nippon Paint Marine’s HydroSmoothXT range. AQUATERRAS is the world’s first biocide-free fouling protection coating, which uses patented polymer technology and hydrophilic and hydrophobic micro-domain structures.
Gladys Goh, President of Nippon Paint Marine, said they are committed to helping customers achieve their net-zero carbon ambitions and deliver efficiencies and sustainability within their operations. “Trust and proof in performance and return on investment is a critical element in driving the uptake of clean technologies across the shipping industry. Working with Lloyd’s Register to rigorously verify the effectiveness of our hull coatings solutions is an essential step in this process. Our technical collaboration with Lloyd’s Register will provide the insight and guidance to our customers, which will provide them with the confidence that they need and help them to choose the right hull coatings for their vessels and fleets, tailored to their operating conditions and in line with their sustainability strategies.”
Goh Chung Hun, Lloyd’s Register Strategic Business Partner (Singapore), highlighted that they are looking forward to working with Nippon Paint Marine to develop this technical collaboration and realise an independent assessment for their hull coating performance. “Our technical expertise and impartiality underpin our commitment to delivering analyses to the highest standard. We are delighted that Nippon Paint Marine has placed their trust in us to provide a performance verification assessment of their hull coatings.”
The Assessment
Assessing vessels across different sectors is crucial because hull fouling varies greatly depending on the vessel route and its operating profile. The assessment will create an accurate understanding of speed loss performance, fuel and emissions reduction. It will enable shipowners to select optimal hull coatings for their vessels.
Lloyd’s Register’s modelling will combine multiple data sources, including noon reports or high-frequency vessel data, AIS tracking and metocean data, as required to create a validated database for assessing coating performance over time. This will be in accordance with the ISO 19030 standard. The resistance contributions caused by environmental effects will be isolated, allowing the coating performance to be evaluated throughout the assessment period. Furthermore, the assessment will demonstrate the effectiveness of the hull coatings and quantify how hull degradation contributes to speed loss.
source: https://www.seanews.co.uk/maritime/lloyd-s-register-to-assess-nippon-paint-marine-s-coatings