FLEX-FEB has developed and designed a special skimmer for the flexible environmental protection barge with the purpose of collecting oil from the water surface.
In order to reduce weight, the skimmer is designed with aluminum beams, and to make the beams oil-repellent, they have been given a so-called sol-gel finish at the Danish Technological Institute in Aarhus, Denmark. The glass-ceramic coating is developed by the Danish Technological Institute to prevent soiling of surfaces in contact with crude oil. Using non-fluorine-based additives, crude oil is effectively repelled on the coated surfaces.
With the applied technique, it is possible to treat the aluminum blanks with spray equipment, after which the coating is hardened in an oven at a relatively low temperature of 185 ° C. Conventional glass-ceramic surfaces are otherwise often sintered at much higher temperatures - often above 900 ° C.
The skimmer will subsequently undergo a series of tests in different environments where both functionality and oil repellent capabilities are tested.
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