The long chill

Duragenics, a treatment developed by the Dura 21 team, involves super-cooling equipment parts inside a cryogenic treatment chamber. Unlike the old method of chilling in liquid nitrogen – which created metal stresses and fragility – this process favourably realigns the molecular structure of metals, thereby increasing their durability and resistance to wear.

Other components of the kind of heavy equipment found in ports – including high-pressure valves – would also be suitable candidates for treatment. One study of a treated valve used in sandblasting (where it is exposed to oxide grit passing in a flow of 90 to 95 pounds per square inch) extended its use from the more usual 30 hours to over 190 hours. And grab teeth are also good candidates, as tests show that 110 hours wear still leaves the teeth in better shape than 60 hours if left untreated.

And in the case of twist-locks, this would also give an added safety advantage – especially as classification society Bureau Veritas identified a spate of incidents of container losses at sea where worn locks and container corners were amongst contributory factors. So roll on the supercool!