Subsea Industries Recognized for ‘Ecoshield’ at Seatrade Awards

Subsea Industries, a Hydrex company, has won a Seatrade 2014 Innovation in Ship Operations Award, for Ecoshield, ultimate protection from cavitation and corrosion/erosion damage for ship hulls, rudders, and ship underwater running gear.

The award was presented by HRH The Princess Royal and accepted for Subsea Industries by David Phillips, Hydrex Group Communications Executive at the Seatrade 2014 Awards Dinner held at the Guildhall in London on April 14th, 2014.

Ecoshield is durable, cavitation-damage-proof rudder protection. After more than 10 years of strenuous testing, Ecoshield was launched in 2013 for permanent protection against cavitation damage for rudders. The glassflake reinforced coating protects the rudder for the service life of the ship without need for recoating or major repair, and comes with a ten-year guarantee.

Ecoshield is also suitable for bulbous bow, stabilizer fins, thruster nozzles and other underwater ship gear which needs special protection from corrosion. Until now, the problem of cavitation damage to rudders, causing erosion, pitting and sometimes complete failure, necessitating very expensive repairs or replacement has remained unsolved.

Now a very durable, tough, long-lasting glass-flake resin coating is putting an end to these problems. Ecoshield is a specially reinforced version of the well-known Ecospeed non-toxic underwater ship hull coating. Small but significant variations of the Ecospeed formula have been tested on rudders since 2002 with extraordinary results.

Ships that were experiencing heavy cavitation damage to their rudders, once the glassflake coating was applied, have seen no further cavitation damage erosion for as long as 10 years after application, with no sign that the coating will need replacement during the life of the ship.

Subsea Industries is a subsidiary of Hydrex, an underwater technology company based in Belgium and the USA, which produces and delivers the Ecospeed underwater hull coating system and Ecoshield, rudder and running gear protection.

Boud Van Rompay, Founder of Hydrex and Subsea Industries and the developer of Ecoshield, said: “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award. We know that the judges are highly expert and discriminating and we take the award as a very valuable acknowledgement for our achievement with Ecoshield. “It is a simple solution that puts an end to cavitation and corrosion damage which has plagued the shipping industry for more than a century.”