SERVE YOUR SHIP NOT YOUR LOUVER
FRP COMPOSITE SOLUTIONS BY CECO PEERLESS
2019 ASNE Presentation
2019 ASNE Presentation
2019 ASNE Presentation
On June 19, CECO Peerless had an opportunity to present a technical paper on corrosion within marine environments to a highly distinguished group of peers and naval engineers at the 2019 ASNE Conference in Washington, DC. This paper was chosen out of hundreds of entries and illustrates our body of work with the US Navy, the business impact of applying FRP composites aboard ship and recommendations for the future.
For more information about FRP composites and its application within marine environments, please visit our Eliminate Marine Corrosion page.
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Air intake systems aboard maritime vessels include systems to remove saltwater and airborne particulates from the air that is being transferred into HVAC ventilation or gas turbine combustion air intake ducts. Other types of louvers are utilized to protect workspaces or cargo holds. These systems are typically located within the ship’s hull or on bulkheads that are exposed to weather, bow waves and countermeasure washdown sprays. As such, exposure to a saltwater atmosphere presents a formidable corrosion challenge that requires regular maintenance operations such as grinding, abrasive blasting and re-painting.Eventually, the corrosion effects become so bad that sections of the equipment must be removed and replaced with costly new base materials or the entire piece of equipment must be replaced.
CECO Peerless is an experienced and reliable global leader in designing and supplying a wide range of compact, high-efficiency, separation and filtration equipment. Our newly developed louvers use fiber reinforced plastic (“FRP”) composite materials to eliminate corrosion issues while maintaining essential performance characteristics. In certain military shipboard applications, significant new benefits such as radar absorbing “stealth” technology are also incorporated.Your crew needs to focus on its mission, not the upkeep of its louvers. Reduce maintenance time and increase survivability on your next voyage.
Your crew needs to focus on its mission, not the upkeep of its louvers. Reduce maintenance time and increase survivability on your next voyage.
Instead of using molded parts where each shape and size is built with a specific mold, an advanced method of “pultrusion” was developed and applied for the US Navy LPD amphibious assault vessels and the Military Sealift Command T-AKE replenishment ships. The pultrusion process is based on a continuous production of woven or non-woven fibers, impregnated with resin and pulled through heated die. As depicted below, this method produces 20- to 30-foot long parts of a consistent cross-section. To make these louvers, only three different cross sections were needed: frames, vane blades and spacer bars.
The selection of FRP composite base materials is focused on the type of resin and the type of glass fiber used for structural reinforcement. For military shipboard applications, the primary driver for material selection is the structural requirement to withstand shock and vibration impacts as qualified per US Navy requirements MIL-S-901D and MIL-STD-167-1, respectively.
Resins are available with different chemical compositions such as vinyl ester and the finished parts will be painted to provide a uniform final product that matches the ship’s color. Special paint treatments to create an icephobic surface are used to prevent ice buildup on ships that are deployed in cold weather conditions. Finally, the addition of alumina trihydrate to the base resin enables the components to meet ASTM-E-162 flame spread, ASTM-E-662 smoke generation and ASTM-E-1534 time to ignition and heat release requirements specified by the US Navy.
These shapes are cut to length, have their ends shaped using butted or tongue-and-groove connections, and finally fixed together with epoxy adhesive.
Download the MIL-SPEC Requirements:
According to feedback from Military Sealift Command Port Engineer, Michael Zirpolo, the acquisition cost for a full shipset of thirty-eight new FRP composite louvers for the USN Cesar Chavez (T-AKE-12) was comparable to one maintenance cycle for half a shipset of painted steel louvers. An analysis of full shipset installation and multi-year operating maintenance costs presents an even more compelling argument for FRP composites. This review shows a balance of initial cost of goods for FRP louvers versus a much higher lifetime cost of maintenance for steel louvers with a payback period of less than 5 years.
Considering a 20-year operating lifetime and a shipset of thirty T-AKE class louvers of varying sizes, the following assumptions were made:
- 2% annual inflation rate
- New steel louvers would need blast, paint and blade replacements starting in the 3rd year
- New FRP louvers would not experience corrosion, but would require touch-up painting starting after 5 years
Discover the total cost of ownership (TCO) savings for your situation using the following calculator below:
Download the Brochure:
Our FRP composite louvers are utilized aboard both LPD San Antonio-class ships and T-AKE class ships, such as the USNS Cesar Chavez. Louvers on the former use a tongue-and-groove assembly technique so they can be mounted into bulkhead openings with radiused corners. Louvers aboard the latter utilize less expensive, square-corner frames as these are mounted flush behind an opening in the hull.
On June 19, CECO Peerless had an opportunity to present a technical paper on corrosion within marine environments to a highly distinguished group of peers and naval engineers at the 2019 ASNE Conference in Washington, DC. This paper was chosen out of hundreds of entries and illustrates our body of work with the US Navy, the business impact of applying FRP composites aboard ship and recommendations for the future.
To watch a video of the presentation, please fill out the form and a link will be made immediately available to you.
Download the Paper:
Peerless ASNE 2019 Paper (1,891kb PDF)
Download the Brochure: