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Seal & Sail safely with ABCON onboard

93 delegates from the Middle East maritime community keenly participated in an insightful discussion, at an ABCON-sponsored IMarEST UAE branch seminar, deliberating innovative lube oil additive solutions which mitigate leakages and reduce operating expenses of equipment. This has a key bearing on vessel safety and uptime, while simultaneously obviating time consuming and prohibitive costs associate with unscheduled drydocking.

In the opening introduction, Honorary Secretary of the IMarEST UAE branch Nikeel Idnani touched upon Seal leakages in oil-to-sea interface equipment which could result in pollution or water ingress onboard, incapacitating a vessel and compromising safety of life, property and the marine environment. To emphasize his point, he brought to light the damaged stern thruster seal of 15000teu Container ship Emma Maersk which eventually resulted in flooding of the engine room in Feb 2013.

In the captivating keynote session “An insight into how Teflon based Additives can reduce Lube Oil leaks – a simple low cost solution”, Jørgen P. Beyer, founder and Managing Director ABCON AS identified the primary causes of leaks in stern tubes, tunnel thrusters and CPP viz. insufficient lubrication of seals during dry docking, air locks in those systems after assembly, oil film pressed out during stand still, fishing lines pulled into seals, sand and other impurities damaging seals when passing through shallow waters. Typically, these leaks are expensive to repair causing vessel downtime. ABCON MARINE SL (Stop Leak) additives are specifically designed to create a barrier in the gap between the rubber seal and the shaft surface. This efficiently decreases the leak or stops it all together thereby avoiding untimely dry-docking or other costly repairs. The product, which is available in mineral oil and biodegradable base oil – both saturated and unsaturated, enables an affected vessel uninterrupted operation until the next scheduled dry-dock where the problem can be permanently fixed. To establish the reality on the ground, Jorgen quoted the Chief Engineer of General Cargo ship Eidsvaag Vega, which had developed a leak in the stern seal, who mentioned, “I must confess I am on the verge of being religious. For more than 16 years I have worked in various ships, Fishing, Dry Cargo and Offshore, but never have I seen anything more effective. After 3-4 hours the leakage had so to say gone. Alternatively, we would have had to go to dry dock plus 6 weeks waiting time for a new stern tube seal”.

As a testament to the effectiveness, Jorgen cited another example of a 7100dwt Dry Cargo ship which after adding ABCON Marine Stern Tube SL seized leaking 100L/day within 24 hours. He stressed that small leaks need to be dealt with promptly as they are a potential source for pollution and cheaper as lesser of ABCON MARINE SL additive is initially needed. While outlining the critical role of lubrication, Jorgen raised awareness of the limits of conventional lube oil products which is evident by the iron content in used oil. ABCON has designed Teflon based additives that improves the capability of lube oil, under all operating conditions. Teflon is an extremely durable material providing the least amount of friction.

ABCON AS manufactures Teflon based lube oil additives for the maritime industry at their plant in Copenhagen, Denmark. ABCON MARINE Teflon based products are designed to reduce operating expenses of equipment as well as to decrease wear and tear and reduced friction.

ABCON is a company that is committed to reducing the operation cost of their customers’ vessels by avoiding unplanned dry dock, reducing pollution in the oceans by providing unique, simple and user-friendly products. Jørgen Beyer, as the founder of this technology, unreservedly let his passion for the subject shine through. He was honest with the audience about what was important to them and why it mattered, connecting wholeheartedly with everyone present. With numerous questions and comments evoked from the audience, it was evident that the delegates were very appreciative of the information. The pleasant evening culminated with cocktails and Christmas dinner hosted by ABCON’s exclusive Middle East distributor – Planet Blue Marine, at the rooftop poolside of the Ramada Jumeirah hotel.
Source: Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST)

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