Reduction of water resistance reduces fuel consumption Energy efficient shipping operation means also: Protection coating for hulls. The chemical industry, here particularly the manufacturer of paints and lacquers, but also classification societies, universities, environmental organizations and not to forget also the shipping companies, during the last years focused pretty strong on these factual circumstances. The nature was a role model: the shark and its skin structure. This super-fast hunter has an almost perfect surface structure: if one looks through a microscope its skin looks like imbricated denticle, which are arranged in such a way, that foreign substances, like e.g. barnacles do not have a chance to inhere. Chemical companies, like e.g. Bodo Möller Chemie, Hempels Paint or Wilckens Paint, have now been crowned with success: they developed high-performance protection coatings and sell them with success.   Fuel-eater algae and barnacle fouling on a hull Foulin... [More]

A new series of super-long-stroke low-speed engines designated G type is announced by MAN Diesel &Turbo. The first series offered is the G80ME-C9 with a bore of 800mm and stroke of 3,720 mm. The G80ME-C9 will be offered in six, seven, eight and nine cylinder configurations. The slower running engines offer the use of larger propeller diameters with the associated improved efficiency improvement.Design work on the first G type is making good progress and final drawings are expected to be completed by mid 2011. Other G type series will follow in the future according to demand. [More]