Long-term bottom protection additive

About BG



Effect to the ship by barnacle adhesion

When a barnacle is attached to the bottom of a ship, water resistance becomes more intense. In effect, more than 10% of speed of the ship is lost and fuel economy worsens 40% at the greatest. As the United States Navy ships and submarines require high mobility, the barnacles must be taken care of constantly. Just by the costs for removal of the barnacles and the increase of fuel consumption totals to 1 billion dollar (USD) per year.

           


BARNACLE GUARD

1) Feature

・BARNACLE GUARD is the additive agent for hydration decomposition (self-consumable) type ship bottom paint.

・By mixing BARNACLE GUARD into a ship bottom paint, it prevents barnacles and mussels to stick to the bottom of a ship.

・When mixed with a ship bottom paint, it is available not only to the bottom of a ship, but can also be used on piers, buoy lights, marine structures, etc…

・It does not contain any chemical compound, as it is made from natural ingredients, BARNACLE GUARD does not harm the natural environment.


2) The difference between anti-fouling bottom paint function

(A) Ship bottom paint in the past containing organotin compounds was based on antifouling feature called "kill the fouling organisms such as barnacles with poison. "Thus, bottom paints has currently been developed from the idea of "killing fouling organisms with poison." To find suppressed load on the environmental friendly “poison,” various methods were tested. Zinc oxide and cuprous oxide as a result was relatively good and has been adopted. However, the antifouling effect also greatly inferior than organic tin compounds and negatively impacted the environment in the long run.
The function of antifouling BARNACLE GUARD, rather than developing in the conventional ideas of "using the effects of poison," instead it has developed from the idea of "to be disable the attachment function itself without the use of poison" for barnacles and mussels. By doing so, without having to include "poison" in the productand to prevent the adhesion of barnacles and mussels became possible. As a result, it has become a product that does not burden the environment.

(B) Barnacles and mussels attaches at the bottom of ships but the rate differs by the environment of the water the ship is at. Thus, the “poison” differs in the quality of performance as well.  

The difference in how much barnacles and mussels attaches to the ship is dependent on the characteristics of the water. The more sea water it is, the more barnacles and if the sea water is mixed with fresh water such as places with river that come downstream into the seawater, there are less barnacles because the poison will not work as well as it does if not in pure sea water. Therefore, the “poison” method will be greatly influenced just by the characteristics of the water the ship is operated in.
Instead of weakening the functions of the aquatic organisms, BARNACLE GUARD lets you disable the adhesion function of aquatic organisms, naturally. Therefore, the effectis exerted so without being affected by the active force of the barnacles, the characteristics of water does not control the attachment of aquatic organisms onships.

3) Persistence of an effect
Persistence of the effect of BARNACLE GUARD is proportional to the thickness of the coating film that is applied by being mixed.
Since the BARNACLE GUARD gives a time encapsulated effect, even if the seawater gradually smears off a certain layer of the coating, another layer behind it still works just like the first and continues to work the effect as it did when first painted.

4) Expiration date
If sealed and unopened, there is no expiration date to the BARNACLE GUARD. If the seal has been opened, keep the package vacuumed, seal the top completely and tightly. If the BARNACLE GUARD is stored in a location with no direct sunlight, the remainder can be used without compromising the effect for approximately two years after opening. Also, if the bottom paint mixed with BARNACLE GUARD remains, it can be re-used the following year without differing its effects.

5) The nature of the product
The nature of the product, BARNACLE GUARD can cause corrosion to aluminum, zinc, stainless and brass, even when mixed with bottom paint, when applied directly to the ship bottom. BARNACLE GUARD is possible for use if applying zinc acrylic type in bottom paint before adding BARNACLE GUARD. (There is no problem for its use of BARNACLE GUARD even when mixed, as long as it does not get in contact with these metals)
There is no problem with the direct application of the BARNACLE GUARD with the mix of zinc acrylic type with bottom paint on iron or steel. Same with the use on wooden FRP and/or non-metallic.

6) Future prospects
Damage caused by barnacles has also been observed in the intake pipe and other major parts of a ship. Attachments of barnacles are not limited to the bottom of the ship. They are also found at the headrace used for cooling the cooling water passage of marine engines, fishing nets of aquaculture, seawater or power plants. The damageis severe, and tremendous costs have been applied to the removal of barnacles.
The persistence of the effect is dependent on the solvent action of bottom paint. Therefore, the effects does not appear when mixed with materials such as plastic or concrete where the BARNACLE GUARD does not dissolve in. However, in order to cope with the damage caused by barnacle adhesion spans in multiple areas, as described above, development of products for barnacle adhesion is in great progress.