Almost 90% of Port Owners Prefer to Deal with Manufacturer

86% of port owners, operators and contractors said they would most trust an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to supply good quality, sold as described marine fenders, compared to a trading company (11%) or other supplier (3%), according to the third Barometer Report from Trelleborg’s Marine Systems business.

Richard Hepworth, President of Trelleborg Marine Systems, said: “It’s interesting to see that such a vast majority view manufacturers as more trust worthy than trading houses. It’s encouraging too – manufacturers, by their very nature, should hold a level of control over the whole process – from design, through to production, through to testing and aftersales care. This holistic approach and oversight is essential when producing mission-critical equipment – trading houses just can’t compete.

“But specifiers need to drill down to a deeper level of detail too – between manufacturing companies, there are still discrepancies.With the recent evolution in rubber manufacturing industries– it’s essential that best practice in rubber compounding keeps pace. In marine fenders specifically, rubber compound composition has a direct impact on the characteristics of the system.”

To demonstrate this fact, Trelleborg recently undertook an extensive testing program, investigating the rubber composition of fenders at many ports around the world. Findings indicated a wide range of compound variability as well as differences in the physical appearance of the fenders.

It was clear from the results that fenders that had deteriorated had done so primarily as a result of the rubber composition rather than actual age. Higher temperatures also reduced the predicted lifecycle of both superior and inferior compounds – but predicted life was reduced six to 10 times more for the inferior rubber compounds.

Take the example of two specific fenders, one high quality and one low cost.Trelleborg found that the tensile strength of the low cost fender was only 9.3 mpa, well below the requirement of the customer’s original specification (16mpa). The tensile strength of the high quality fender was much higher, at 15.4mpa, but still slightly below specification.

The elongation at break was also below the specification the customer required in the low cost fender: found to be only 278%, compared to the minimum requirement of 350%. For the higher quality fender, the elongation at break was found to be 364%, and above specification. The full report on Trelleborg’s findings will be available to download in November.

The supplier of the low cost fender had actually provided a test certificate with values showing that the properties of the rubber compound exceeded the specification, again highlighting the issue that supplier certification and reporting must be substantiated with follow up testing to ensure products are “as described”.

Trelleborg, September 30, 2013