Nippon Paint Marines new hull paint reduces ship drag
Article Type: New products From: Pigment & Resin Technology, Volume 38, Issue 3
Nippon Paint Marine Coatings Co., the subsidiary of Nippon Paint Co. that specializes in ship hulls, has begun to market a newly developed paint that helps reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency by roughly 4 percent, according to the company.
Some existing ship hull paints can reduce surface irregularities to around 150 μm, enhancing fuel efficiency by lowering the vessel’s resistance in the water.
But the new paint works even better, according to the firm, reducing surface irregularities to just 100 μm. The result is an added 8 percent reduction in drag resistance.
Nippon Paint Marine said it got the inspiration for the paint from dolphins and tuna, which swim with low drag thanks to the mucous layer coating their bodies.
The new paint contains a proprietary polymer compound that turns into a gel when it comes in contact with water. A hull covered with this paint has less drag because the surface develops a gel coat that tends to accumulate in any indentations, creating a smoother surface.
The new paint is three times more expensive, but Nippon Paint Marine calculates that in the case of a 95-kt container ship, the initial expense of using the 5-year formulation of the new product can be recovered in terms of fuel savings in just 1 year.
