Fender confusion
Checking PIANC (The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure) certification to ensure marine fenders are sold as described is not necessarily “best practice”, says Trelleborg Marine Systems.
Over 65% of port owners, operators and contractors request and check PIANC certification, according to Trelleborg’s latest Barometer Report, but the report found a significant increase in downtime compared to last year (from 80% to over 90%).
Richard Hepworth, president, Trelleborg Marine Systems, said: “It’s reassuring that so many request and check PIANC certification. However, it’s important that owners and operators understand exactly what to look for.”
Trelleborg recently carried out tests on two commercial sized fenders, one high quality and one low cost, to see if the rubber compound values matched customer’s requirements.
“PIANC doesn’t have the legal mandate to enforce standards across the industry, and some of the more unscrupulous traders are using this to their advantage by applying PIANC certification to entire product lines or factories, rather than to specific product batches and compound formulations,” Mr Hepworth added.
Since defining rubber compound composition in fender systems is not currently practised or specified in any industry standard, the company has launched a new Rubber Specification tool to help tackle the problem.
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