The importance of quality and safety of rubber fenders

The importance of quality and safety of rubber fenders

With the development of China's shipping industry, there is an increasing demand for port and ship fenders, and the requirements for the performance of fenders are also increasing. Among them, rubber fenders are most widely used due to their excellent toughness and impact resistance. Recently, there are many manufacturers of rubber fenders in China, and their products are of varying quality. In order to survive in the fierce market competition, some manufacturers rely solely on low price competition as the main means, do not strictly comply with relevant standards and processes, adopt low-quality raw materials or excessively use recycled rubber to reduce costs, which poses great risks to the safety of docks and ships berthing. Experts have indicated that rubber fenders manufacturers should strictly adhere to relevant national standards, strict process flow, enhance independent innovation capabilities, continuously improve product quality, and provide reliable and safe products for China's shipping and shipbuilding industries.

It is reported that there are various types of rubber fenders on the market recently, mainly including compression type, inflatable type, lateral loaded cylindrical type (drum type), docking V-type (i.e. X-type) and flexible pile type. Manufacturers should consider many factors when designing and producing rubber fenders, such as the reaction force on the hull and dock berthing components, the size of the deformation of the fenders after absorbing the ship's kinetic energy, the effect of the deformation of the fenders on the hull's reaction force, the relative stiffness of the fenders, the effectiveness of the energy absorption of the fenders during non forward squeezing, the rate at which the fenders slow down the ship's berthing speed, the friction coefficient between the fenders and the hull, the infrastructure investment and maintenance costs of the fenders and supporting components, and the contact method between the hull and fenders. Users can choose different types of rubber fenders according to their actual needs. Except for tugboats and small ships, large tonnage ships are usually not equipped with rubber fenders. When berthing, inflatable rubber fenders are mainly used to protect the dock and hull.

Compared to the supporting markets such as ship engines and ship plates in the shipbuilding industry, the market capacity of rubber fenders is not very large, and competition is very fierce. Li Haie, Deputy General Manager of Zhonghai Rubber (Qingdao) Industrial Co., Ltd., recommended that the annual market capacity of rubber fenders in China is over 2 billion yuan, and there are only 3 to 4 well-known manufacturers. They mainly target backbone ports and shipbuilding enterprises, with a large number of customized products, resulting in high market share and good efficiency. However, some manufacturers who produce more universal products and have thin profits can only adopt a low price competition strategy, willing to adopt low-quality materials or adopt a high proportion of recycled rubber to seek cost reduction. This is more common in areas where rubber fender manufacturers gather more in Jiangsu. Li Haie pointed out that low-quality rubber fenders pose great harm, not only have a short service life, but once damaged, they will cause serious damage to the dock and berthing vessels.

Song Baoqing, Secretary General of the Rubber Miscellaneous Technical Committee of the National Rubber and Rubber Products Standardization Technical Committee, responsible for the revision and technical centralized management of China's rubber fender standards, also deeply shares this feeling. Recently, the standards adopted by China for solid rubber fenders are "GB/T 21537-2008 Cone shaped Rubber Fenders" and "HG/T 2866-2003 Rubber Fenders". Inflatable rubber fenders adopt "CB-T 3948 Marine Inflatable Rubber Berthing Balls" and ISO17357:2002 "High pressure Floating Pneumatic Rubber Fenders", while filled floating rubber fenders are a new product that has only emerged in recent years, and there are currently no international or industry standards. Song Baoqing pointed out that various rubber fender standards in China are not backward compared to foreign countries, but the uneven implementation of standards by manufacturers results in uneven product quality, which poses hidden dangers to the development of China's shipping and shipbuilding industries. She stated that adding recycled rubber to raw materials can improve processing performance and meet green environmental requirements. The amount of recycled rubber added will have adverse effects on product quality and service life. There is currently no quantitative analysis data available, so the use of recycled rubber cannot be simply denied. But adopting high-quality raw materials is an important foundation for ensuring product quality, which is beyond doubt.

Rubber fenders are mainly used in shipbuilding enterprises as safety protection for ship berthing dock outfitting. Personnel related to rubber fenders indicate that the quality of the product is of utmost importance. If a collision accident occurs during the outfitting of a new ship at the dock due to quality issues with rubber fenders, resulting in damage to the hull, the new ship will have to be reworked and repaired, leading to delays. Although rubber fenders are not the main production facilities of shipbuilding enterprises compared to ports, shipyards also pay more attention to the cost-effectiveness of rubber fenders, but product quality cannot be ignored.