Exterior encapsulation product goes offshore and into newbuilds

The latest product has been designed to offer the same long term performance characteristics as the original Vessgard product but at a lower film build for all exterior surfaces. Also introduced to the formulation is a long lasting polymeric aesthetic finish. The company says that the combination of long term protection and preservation of aesthetic appearance is now proving itself in service.

An important milestone has now been reached in the first Vessgard EXT application, to the bulk carrier Yeoman Bridge, (96,000dwt, built 1991) which was carried out in April 2010 at Remontowa in Poland. All decks and hatch cover surfaces with an area totalling 11,500 m2 were 100% blasted and applied with the Vessgard EXT system by CAPPS to help the owners achieve the 40-year service life expected from their ships. After two years of service in the North Sea the new product is said to have demonstrated significantly superior performance levels to conventional deck coatings. As a result, the coating is attracting interest from other owners looking for similar long-term solutions.

The Vessgard EXT polymeric encapsulation system can be applied to any vessel type, including bulk carriers, oil and chemical tankers, LNG carriers, FPSOs and offshore vessels and platforms. According to CAPPS, in the offshore industry multi-stage epoxy systems are the standard paints used for decks and external structures. The company believes it has found a gap in the market for quality and longevity of service with speed of application. The coating is applied by CAPPS personnel through a specially-designed application machine system.

Vessgard EXT is a two stage 100% solid polymeric encapsulation system offering rapid curing characteristics, that CAPPS says can be applied in less than half the time of conventional coatings, a characteristic expected to appeal in particular to the offshore market.

CAPPS says it is currently diversifying into the newbuilding market, the products having been proven in the shiprepair business. The company says there is a compelling argument for owners that the best return on investment would be achieved if the products were applied at time of new build. As a result, CAPPS is developing a network of key newbuilding yard groups.

“We are approaching newbuildings in the same way as we established things in the ship repair business. As we control the application of our products it is important for us to have operational relationships in place with the key yard facilities, and in the case of newbuildings acceptance by the yard design teams is an important part of offering our products to vessel and offshore newbuild programs. Our international sales network is handling the direct sales approach to the owners, but we are also signing representative agent companies within Korea and the other key new building locations to cover the operational side of things with the main yard groups. Through our agent company in Greece, Resolute Maritime we have a new addition to the CAPPS personnel team, the highly experienced Naval Architect Apostolis Papadimitriou who is now acting as CAPPS newbuildings consultant. We are also very pleased to announce our first agent company signing in Korea of Global Technical Systems who will be representing CAPPS exclusively for all projects carried out at Hyundai Heavy Industries. We are also developing new representations for the other yard groups so we will soon have our newbuildings set up firmly in place,” says managing director Tim Cole.