Muelhan Group

The Muehlhan Group is one of the world’s most experienced marine coatings application companies. When Muehlhan was contracted to re-coat the ballast tanks on the Saipem 7000 semi-submersible crane vessel in December 2015, the company knew it needed a ballast tank coating that would enable its applicators to work around the clock. The Muehlhan Group was pleased to use Hempadur Quattro XO 17870, an IMO PSPC approved coating for water ballast tanks that offers extended over-coating windows and optimised workability for greater shipyard efficiency.

Saipem provides advanced drilling and pipe-laying services to the oil and gas industry, and its state-of-the-art Saipem 7000 semi-submersible crane vessel has the capacity to handle the entire scope of offshore construction projects, from pipe-laying to heavy lifting. The vessel’s cutting-edge design includes a fast ballasting system, made up of 40 ballast tanks and 14 rapid ballast tanks.

When the vessel came out of service for routine maintenance in December 2015, the Muehlhan Group was contracted to re-coat the ballast tanks. The docking schedule was tight and winter temperatures were low, so the company needed a PSPC-approved ballast tank coating that offered very short re-coating intervals and could be applied in temperatures as low as -10°C.

Muehlhan has vast experience of selecting marine coatings, and it knew immediately that Hempadur Quattro XO 17870 was the ideal coating for the job.

Our Hempadur Quattro XO range of high-performance pure epoxy PSPC-compliant coatings has been developed specifically for ballast tanks. Engineered with application efficiency in mind, the range includes a number of different versions to suit different yard working methods and VOC requirements. All Hempadur Quattro XO products can be upgraded with aluminium pigmentation and our proprietary mircofibre technology to enhance anti-corrosion properties and long-term durability.

Hempadur Quattro XO 17870 is a two-component, pure epoxy with 80 per cent volume solids. It is specifically formulated for application situations where fast re-coating is required, and remains easy to apply in temperatures as low as -10°C, which made it ideal for the Saipem 7000 project.

Muehlhan applied a paint system consisting of two coats Hempadur Quattro XO 17870 in the ballast tanks of the Saipem 7000. In all, 60,000 litres of coatings were applied and the project was completed in just 110 days.