Replacement Rubber Skirt, ‘better than the original rubber used on the build’

10th November, 2021

Work with the client began once they contacted us via our contact form on the Aquaseal Rubber website. The initial contact was enquiring about whether we could help with a flexible rubber skirt for the vessel. This request was due to the original company that built the vessel in Italy in 2015 was no longer trading.

As always, our expert team was up for the challenge. After a few emails, telephones, and drawings, we advised the client on the most suitable rubber for their project requirements. The rubber we advised was EPDM, as this rubber is particularly resistant to ozone, sea water and marine environments.

The next step in the process was communicating with production, to understand the logistics required to ensure the unusual shape would work in our production facilities. Once making some small adjustments and test running the extrusion tooling, we knew we had the capabilities to produce this complex-shaped rubber. We also had to ensure the rubber would maintain the correct profile required to make sure the rubber skirt was easy to fit for the ship’s crew or shipyard.

Although there was a slight delay to the end date of the project, due to COVID restrictions that were out of our control, the whole team were extremely happy with the outcome of the finished rubber profile. As well as looking exactly how we wanted, the rubber profile was also within our tolerances of extrusion ISO 3302 Cross section E2. Once we were happy with the finished goods, we shipped the rubber skirt to the required destination, which was a dock where the ship was being refurbished.

All the reports back from the ship’s crew regarding the rubber skirt were incredibly positive, and the ship’s Chief Engineer even commented saying our rubber was ‘better than the original rubber used on the build; it holds shape and moves with the ship.’
The team at Aquaseal Rubber are really pleased with the overall outcome of this bespoke rubber product, and receiving great feedback is always a pleasure.

If you are looking for bespoke rubber, or are starting a new project, contact our expert team today and find out how Aquaseal Rubber can help.