Mooring Solutions
Specialized Corrosion and Wear Protection Systems
Vicinay has developed several coatings to prevent or to minimize general and specific corrosion and to protect components against wear and abrasion. Corrosion is a problem especially for mooring projects in warm temperatures and mainly at the splash zone where there is a high oxygen content. Bacterial corrosion should also be considered, not only at the sea bottom but at different positions along the mooring lines.
Many mooring chain failures are related to varying corrosion mechanisms so finding a solution to delay or avoid this degradation phenomenon has become one of the offshore industry’s main concerns. Vicinay established a research project on various possible coating applications, which has enabled us to introduce a series of coatings to avoid corrosion and wear in mooring lines:
- Thermal Sprayed Aluminum (TSA), aluminum-based coating,
has been used at Vicinay as corrosion protection in chains since 2001. It can be said that this coating is field-proven in many projects with more than 15 years in service.
Additionally, Vicinay has performed extensive research on the corrosion behavior of TSA compared with base steel material, simulating real seawater conditions, including atmospheric factors at splash and immersed zones. The capability of the coating to resist wear and its response under different cathodic potential levels were assessed as well, both in the laboratory, under controlled conditions, and in the real environments. Results showed the benefits of applying TSA to offshore mooring chains by significantly enhancing corrosion resistance with a proven durability of more than 25 years based on ISO 12944 and the CX new category.
- For protection against abrasion and wear,
TSC (Thermal Sprayed Carbide) was developed, which applies Wolfram Carbide (WC) with HOV protection to certain areas of the link. This coating reduces interlink wear.
- Polymeric material-based coatings,
can be an appropiate solution for some applications to improve corrosion and abrasion protection. Different corrosion and tribocorrosion tests were made to prove the benefits of this kind of coating not only in lab testing with samples, but in the real environment on full-scale chain links as well.
There are further coatings which can be used as the project requires, such as coatings for electrical insulation, impact protection etc.
Vicinay has a constant focus on developing new solutions in coating and protection systems.
