SPC Cone Fender System | Ferry Terminal | Sweden

Industry standards are delineating a clear goal in the manufacturing of marine fenders, their performance, physical properties and durability, but there is no recommendation as to how to get there. The reason for this is simple: no two fender projects and no two fender manufacturers are alike. Each project has unique requirements that necessitate customized rubber compositions. 

All of this provides a lot of room for market differentiation and opportunities for fender manufacturers to present their own best practice-approaches to producing high performance products. Yet, it has also become the breeding ground for some widely accepted – and by some stakeholders actively advocated – misconceptions about compound production, the most prevalent one asserting that the quality of a fender is primarily determined by the chemical composition of its rubber compound.

“At the ShibataFenderTeam Group (SFT), we believe that the quality of a fender should be measured by its performance, i.e. by the degree to which a fender lives up to the requirements of its specific field of application,” says Mr. Dominique Polte, Board Member ShibataFenderTeam.

As a reinforced rubber compound is the core of any fender, the first part of the SFT White Paper Series on fender manufacturing “Compounding – A Winding Road” focuses on the raw materials used in rubber production, the physical properties of a fender, and their correlation with the compound’s composition. Its goal is to detail the considerations relevant to determining what makes a good fender. 

It finds that in fender manufacturing, physical properties are the only reliable indicator of the quality of a rubber compound that is defined by international standards. In addition, the white paper recommends that ratios of fillers and reinforcement agents such as carbon black (CB), calcium carbonate (CC) and silica should be determined by specialists with profound material knowledge, as amount and particle size greatly influence the compound as well as its performance and durability. Furthermore, the paper draws attention to the fact that rubber compounds mixed correctly with CC by experienced manufacturers comply with and surpass international testing standards.

The four-part White Paper Series aims to provide an unbiased view of what exactly makes a good fender – from source materials to manufacturing process.
Part I approached this question by taking a closer look at the constituent components of a fender and their role in determining performance-relevant physical properties. Parts II and III detail the mixing and curing process involved in producing a high-quality rubber fender. Part IV concludes the series with a detailed report about testing. 

Get your complimentary version here.

POOR PLANNING AND OVERCONFIDENCE: THE MAIB’S MAIN FINDINGS

If there is one takeaway point from the inquiry it is that poor planning was at play.

Investigators discovered the lead pilot had not informed the bridge team of his plan for the turn around Bramble Bank. There was an “absence of a shared understanding of the pilot’s intentions for passing other vessels or for making the critical turns during the passage”.

Elsewhere, the master and port pilots were blamed for “complacency and a degree of over-confidence”.

CMA CGM, which took delivery of the Vasco de Gama in July 2015, has acknowledged MAIB’s findings, and claims to be addressing the aforementioned issues raised in the report.

“Following this grounding, CMA CGM and ABP [Associated British Ports] Southampton have been working together,” said a spokesperson for the company in an email.

“As mentioned in the MAIB official report, CMA CGM has already taken measures to prevent this type of incident to happen again. CMA CGM is strongly committed to ensuring the safety of its operations and its crews in accordance with local and international regulations.”

All straight-bat stuff. ABP could not be reached for comment.

Simon Boxall, a maritime expert from the University of Southampton, believes MAIB’s findings to be fair, despite Bramble Bank’s reputation as “a navigation hazard” due to it susceptibility to “slight movement after major storms”.

“Looking through the report there was no evidence of unforeseen mechanical failure on the ship, nor of abnormal weather conditions,” he says.

“On that basis, the two pilots and the ship’s master should have been in a position to safely navigate the vessel into port. It would appear to be user error – which is what the report says in so many words.

“In light of this, introducing ways of reducing user error can only be seen as a good move.”

Boxall also acknowledges things could have been a lot worse. As the Vasco de Gama was re-floated relatively quickly, the port didn’t suffer any kind of blockage – which, given the vessel’s size, would have brought Southampton to “a standstill”.

Neither did the vessel endure any serious damage. Nonetheless, an investigation was still necessary.

“If reports such as this are not produced then the safe navigation of shipping is not improved,” says Boxall.

“In the same way an airline near-miss is thoroughly investigated, it is important that the same is done for shipping – not as a witch hunt, but as a fact finding investigation to improve safety.”

Image courtesy of

Testing the waters

According to Oldenburg, the aim of the ongoing surveys is to get a “holistic view of the seafarers’ health conditions” that will enable the development of comprehensive health materials. This involves collecting data on heart rates, blood and skin condition, activity during work and leisure times, daily food intake, and duration and quality of sleep. Crews are also being asked to fill in different anonymous questionnaires about well-being and mental health. 

Data collected from the tests will allow scientists to develop health-related promotional materials, which nautical officers can use to encourage awareness of better health practices. It will also determine which modules will be most relevant on the IT platform ahead of the test phase. 

“The investigations on board the test ships will help to see what kind of modules are really relevant,” says Kristin Apitz, of CONVIS, responsible for the project management and public relations of e-healthy ship. “All project partners have a lot of ideas in mind, but the first step is to draw concrete scientific conclusions about what will really support the officers on board.”

While the technical details of the platform are still up in the air, its potential lies in two objectives: providing relevant healthcare information to seafarers; and making it possible to quickly establish a connection between shore and ship in the event of an emergency. 

Hanseaticsoft GmbH has a distinguished pedigree in developing cloud-based solutions for the shipping industry. Just weeks before lead partner ZfAM approached the company, Hanseaticsoft GmbH began to develop its Crew Portal application to increase transparency and autonomy for seafarers, according to CEO Alexander Buchmann.

“We can incorporate a lot of the experiences we gathered while developing our own cloud-based system to create a system that is easy to use without any time-consuming training,” he adds. “We think that for the users to accept and appreciate using a solution, it has to be intuitively usable and bring joy.”

Buchmann says that the goal is to establish a ‘central pool’ for seafarers to manage illnesses on board, as well as administer medications. Health officers will be able to access the platform independently, enter cases of illness, look up appropriate medicine, and manage stock on board.

“To make this possible, we follow a strict cloud-based approach, meaning that there is no need to install any applications,” he says. “Using a cloud and web-based system, uniform information is always available and accessible via smartphone or tablet regardless of time or location. The crew can enter and access all of their personal medical data [by themselves] – leading to increased transparency and independence.”

Apitz says that the creation of a digital platform will lead to a move away from paper-based processes, such as the requirement to fill in medical forms manually, and do away with hefty medical books ships are required to have on board. Most excitingly, the platform could facilitate telemedicine capabilities, which enable better communications between crew on merchant ships and medical professionals onshore. 

Nevertheless, the data-heavy nature of telemedicine – specifically when it comes to video-conferencing with onshore medical professionals – means that on-board connectivity may have to be improved.
 
The implementation of an IT platform beyond the remit of the project is still a way off, with the development, testing and evaluation all expected to conclude by 2021. However, from what Oldenburg says about seafarers’ willingness to participate in the project, there’s clearly recognition from the industry that a digital method could be the answer. 

“One big challenge is to gain the attention, interest and trust of the crew to join our project and to participate in the different examinations and questionnaires,” says Oldenburg. “It is emphasised that every part of our research is entirely voluntary and all collected data is treated absolutely confidentially.”

“However, after finishing the second examination aboard I can conclude that the crews of both vessels cooperated extremely well, offered us deep insights into their daily life, supported our work and tried to make our stay on board as comfortable as possible.”