Anti – Fouling for Marine Applications

Marine environments are highly vulnerable to the rapid accumulation of various forms of marine-fouling and encrustation. Fouling species are attracted to submerged structures such as vessels, buoys and offshore wind farm pylons, especially those covered in bio-film, because they provide a suitable environment for their larvae to colonise. Once these species have found a suitable surface they rapidly multiply. Barnacles alone can produce 10,000 larvae in a season, and bore through any surface protection to gain purchase on the substrate material, therefore it is important to remove existing fouling and to prevent further growth.

Algae, seaweed and encrustation rapidly grows on ship hulls and drives, in most climates and locations. This severely reduces the efficiency of the vessel, as the lubricity of the hull is compromised to the extent that additional fuel is required to operate the ship. Furthermore encrustation can cause boat hulls and marine structures to become cracked or brittle over time as the barnacles bore into the surface.

Traditional anti-fouling treatments using toxic paint can be very expensive, time consuming and harmful to the environment. However, the longevity and efficacy of these treatments can be significantly improved by the tandem use of ultrasound technology offered by Efficient Sonics for these applications. 

We appreciate that a yacht or pleasure boat represents a significant investment, requiring both time and money to run and maintain. Efficient Sonics ultrasonic technology provides an effective and environmentally safe solution to the problem of marine-fouling, with a low operating cost.

By deploying transducers at appropriate locations inside the boat hull and utilising the hull structure to transmit the sound to the submerged parts, the longevity of the anti-fouling coating can be maintained. For more Information and our Products please click here.

Efficient Sonics offers a range of submersible fixtures for mounting transducers to ensure that harbour structures such as buoys, pillars and wind turbine pylons are appropriately sonificated, as an effective and environmentally friendly method of reducing marine-fouling.