Hamburg-based container shipping company, Hapag-Lloyd AG has completed testing of International Marine Coatings’ Intersleek silicone paint on the underwater areas on four vessels.
Intersleek, a coatings technology which does not use biocides to control fouling, is designed for deep sea, high activity scheduled ships. It provides a slippery, low friction surface onto which fouling organisms have difficult settling.
Last year the four “Antwerp Express” class ships were painted with Intersleek. The company tested the system in everyday ship operations and carried out performance measurements under conditions closely comparable to the previous year when the ships were coated with a self-polishing copolymer antifouling. According to the company’s results, the silicone paint reduces fuel consumption by six percent.
“With these results our expectations have been considerably exceeded,” said Lutz-Michael Dyck, head of Hapag-Lloyd AG ship inspection. “Actually, we had only reckoned with a fuel saving of two percent per ship. In reality, with the silicone coatings, not two but six percent more fuel is saved.”