From our users
Nothing tells the tale as well as the words from end users who have practical experience with the product. We have compiled some of the feedback and information we have received back from our users.
Rudder cavitation damage solved permanently for Ernst Russ
"None of the rudders have sustained any further cavitation damage. The cavitation damage to the rudders ended with the first application of Ecoshield. I would say for me it quite clear: Had we not applied Ecoshield on the rudders, we would certainly have extensive work to do in drydock." - Grzegorz Girt, Superintendent, Ernst Russ
ZF Marine Ecoshield-coated thrusters
“We offer the Ecoshield-coated thruster as an option, but it is a very good solution for increasing the life of thruster installations aboard tugs and pushboats operating in shallow waters. We can see a really big improvement. Thrusters are less prone to damage, reducing maintenance and operational costs. We see these benefits not only with the towboat application, but also other applications such as harbor tugs and passen- ger vessels.” - Frank van der Vegt, Area Sales Manager ZF Marine Krimpen
Yacht Oceanside sailing with Ecospeed
“Going with Ecospeed was a gamble for us. We evaluated it ourselves and decided to go with it. Now we have no regrets at all. It was the right decision."
“Ecospeed feels very safe. You have the idea that it has a second hull or something like that because of the glass in the coating.” - Henk and Annet Brautigam, owners
Ecospeed Ice protects Interscan ice-going Baltic cargo ships
Photos show the bow of the Patriot after 1 year with conventional coating and after 4 years with Ecospeed Ice, no recoating. “Patriot was coated ten years ago and has traded in ice every year since then; but the coating has lasted perfectly well. Before Ecospeed we used normal epoxy coatings which would last for, perhaps, one to two winters. Now we need to pay no attention to the coating and there is no need for extra drydockings. In 2015, after 10 years of trading on the same routes, the Patriot’s Ecospeed coating is still going strong. We are very impressed with it and now have the coating on seven vessels; six coasters and one MPP. It’s performed very well for us.We know that after an underwater clean the fuel consumption goes down to what it was when the paint was new.” - Michael Tensing, Interscan Schiffahrt
12 years in heavy ice with no repaint needed – British Antarctic Survey
“The biggest thing was the surprise at seeing the areas where you’d expect it to have taken a lot of damage...when she first came out of the water and onto the blocks it was a complete shock to all those present. All of us there commented on the condition of the hull and in particular that there was negligible damage at the bows, merely some scratch marks. None of us there would have predicted this. I then jokingly asked the question, ‘Are you sure you’ve taken this ship to the ice?’” - Stephen Lee, then Senior Marine Engineer for British Antarctic Survey
Ernest Shackleton/Laura Bassi continued
“I was very impressed with the condition of the coating on the Shackleton after two seasons in the ice. Apparently she had been trapped in the ice on several occasions and the procedure is to reverse and then crash forward at full speed. Yet the coating remained intact – pretty impressive. I would have expected to see damage down through the coating exposing the hull. However the bow looked as if it had just been painted. Crew members who had seen the ship out of the water on numerous occasions said that they had never seen the hull looking so good after two seasons in the ice.” - Howard Jess, Independent NACE Level 2 Marine Paint Inspector
Ernest Shackelton/Laura Bassi continued
“Shackleton’s hull condition is the best I have seen after typical ice year operations. We tend to account for touch up coats every other year to areas impacted by the ice, but this year we needed to repair even less surface area than expected, despite the vessel encountering heavy Antarctic ice. The shipyard initially wanted to apply its preferred supplier’s coating system, but based on our experience of this coating on the James Clark Ross and Ernest Shackleton we wanted Ecospeed. We already had this system on the entire hulls below the water line of both research vessels and found it much easier to repair: it doesn’t need to be applied under such strict environmental conditions or require the hire of any specialist application equipment.” - Andrew Webb, Superintendent British Antarctic Survey
Ernest Shackelton/Laura Bassi after 12 years of heavy ice, no repaint
“It was impressive to see the Ecospeed paint in an excellent condition even after so many years of application. We have performed only touch-ups in the bow area affected by the impacts with the ice layer. When Laura Bassi returned from her first Arctic campaign, during which she encountered quite a few icy areas, it was clear that the Ecospeed paint did its job impeccably.” - Mr. Rosario Martino, Naval Architect & Marine Engineer for the vessel’s new ship managers, ARGO s.r.l.
Pleiades – Rudder Cavitation Damage Solved with Ecoshield
“We were experiencing heavy cavitation of the rudder blades as well as cavitation damage on the propeller nozzle on all our vessels. With the Xanthos, after high pressure washing, the rudder blade and the propeller nozzle were in immaculate condition, 7 years after Ecoshield was applied [see photo]. Fantastic. Having a rudder and nozzle in good condition, from a typical drydock of 10 days, you save 1 day. Roughly speaking 10-15% time saved from the total drydock. The market right now is $15-20,000 per day so you can save $15-20,000 off the drydock just for one off-hire day.” - Mr. Dimitris Gyftopoulos, Technical Superintendent Engineer, Pleiades Shipping Agents S.A.
SCICON worldwide – Independent paint inspector viewpoint
“In SCICON worldwide’s 25+ years of inspecting a wide range of ship coating projects as an independent coating inspection and consulting company, we can honestly say that we have never come across a product equal to Ecoshield. Not only does the 1000 μm of glass-platelet reinforced coating provide for excellent barrier corrosion protection, but more importantly (and that's where we have seen many 'similar glassflake' coatings fail) outstanding resistance against long term cavitation and mechanical impact (ice, debris, etc...). In that respect, Ecoshield really is in a class of its own.” - Gunnar Ackx, Managing Director www.sciconworldwide.com NACE Level III Certified Coating Inspector, SSPC Level III Certified Protective Coating Inspector SSPC Certified Protective Coating Specialist, SSPC Past President (2016-2017)
Seaspan – 10 years after Ecoshield with no repainting, the rudder needed no repair
“After high pressure washing in drydock we saw that no repair of the Ecoshield was needed on rudders that were coated 9 or 10 years ago... Compared with conventional coatings, we save somewhere between one and three days in drydock per ship... We are planning to apply Ecoshield on the rudder blade, bow thruster tunnel, energy saver and also the scrubber outlet on all our upcoming newbuilds.” - Mr. Emilian Jianu, NACE 3 FROSIO 3, Coating Performance Specialist, SEASPAN.
Sea Launch Odyssey semisubmersible rocket launch platform – Ecospeed
"The main reason we chose Ecolock for the hull was to avoid the penetration through the paint by the fouling and to protect the hull for at least 15 years. I saw that it's not penetrating. It looks good. There was a jack-up rig sitting in drydock ahead of the Odyssey when the hull was coated. They could certainly have used Ecospeed there, when you look at how much steel they had to change due to a poorly protected hull. What they do is just put a lot of anodes on and sit there and then they have to go into drydock and change a lot of steel, instead of putting Ecolock on the hull to begin with. Since we applied Ecolock, we no longer need anodes. We just use them for the seawater inlets for protection of the piping system internally and for the propeller tips. . So all these hack-up rigs can get rid of all their anodes and the rest of it and put this coating on. This jack-up rig had been in the dock for six or seven months changing steel. That's a lot of money. If you could put this system on those that would be a big benefit." - Jan Bakke, Senior Superintendent, Sea Launch vessels.
W&R Shipping Crownbreeze hull protected with Ecospeed Ice
“It is an environmental consideration, but for us it is also that our ships will be protected from corrosion and that they would rust away if not well protected. Ecospeed provides excellent protection. In general we are quite happy with Ecospeed and looking forward to finding out how well it holds up over the long haul. With the Crownbreeze we could really say after five years we only needed a little bit of paint for touch-ups which was fine. And if I compare that, if I would have a ship like the Monica in the drydock, we would have spent more money for painting, that’s for sure.” - Capt. Wim van Ecke, W&R Shipping