Keelcrab Paint

Because it is a responsible choice, because it is the future, and because with Keelcrab drones, it is a complete choice that pays off today.

The continuous requests from our ship-owning or professional customers for a definitive and complete solution for hull maintenance (daughters of an ever decreasing customer satisfaction) have pushed us to imagine a perfect complementarity resulting from a combo of products that as a common denominator have total respect for our seas, in which the biocide (or any polluting agent) is abandoned and replaced by new chemical-physical characteristics and the maintenance activity of our keelcrab drones.

The constant requests from our ship-owning and professional customers for a definitive and complete solution for hull maintenance (daughters of an increasingly low customer satisfaction rate) have prompted us to imagine a perfect complementary combination of products whose common denominator is total respect for our seas, in which the biocide (or any polluting agent) is abandoned and replaced by new chemical-physical characteristics and the maintenance activity of our keelcrab drones.

In order to do this, we have directed our study and research in the direction of non-water-soluble biocide-free paints, which develop hard, highly resistant and hydrophobic surfaces that greatly alleviate the take root of organisms on the hull, being perfectly complementary to the cleaning activity aimed at maintaining performance and improving the consumption-performance ratio.

When in port (in a biocide-free world), especially in the high season with high temperatures, algae, vegetation, barnacles or dog’s teeth proliferate; but thanks to the hydrophobicity generated, they are extremely easy to remove and sometimes (under certain conditions) even partially self-excavate at high speeds.

The non-water solubility and high surface resistance of the products combined with the study and design of our drone brushes generate a revolutionary end result: ZERO impact cleaning and maintenance of the hull.

dew drops on the super-hydrophobic surface of a leaf

We are aware that we are proposing an epoch-making change and at the same time we are certain that the correct way to move away from dependence on biocides in times of full ecological transaction is to abandon old solutions once and for all and move towards keelcrab recommended hydrophobic hull treatments as a replacement for traditional antifouling paints in order to continue to sail better and with total respect for our seas.

The combination with cycles of grooming activities, i.e. routine maintenance by means of calculated and robotised brushing with the express purpose of keeping navigation performance always at the top, reduces fuel consumption, costs and related CO2 emissions.

• Increasingly stringent (global) regulations on the use of biocides (heavy metals) in anti-fouling paints that are highly toxic to the environment, humans and animals.

• Climate change (average temperatures of marine substrates increasing significantly year on year) and alien-invasive species.

This framework opens up new avenues and new technical and commercial horizons. Keelcrab believes in the combined solution of complementary products with zero biocide content accompanied by maintenance programmes.

For these reasons, it tests-experiments-recommends-markets and certifies products with ‘modern’, hydrophobic, non-water-soluble and 100% environmentally friendly chemical characteristics that espouse the ‘replace biocide with drone’ philosophy in order to maintain top performance and reduce the amount of fuel needed and the associated CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

Estimated hull surface area:
A = boat length at waterline
B = maximum beam at waterline
C = draught

Y = correction coefficient (0.4 for sailing boats, 0.7 for motor boats).

FORMULA:
X (area) = A x ( B+2C) x Y

Yield of paint: the yield is the amount of paint required (ATTENTION, 1 or 2 coats depending on the product) to paint 1 square metre of surface (at the set layer). It is expressed in mt^2/litre and determines your requirements by virtue of calculating the total surface area.
To simplify: if I have a total surface area calculated as 40 square metres and a yield of 8 mt^2/litre, I will need 5 litres of product for each coat.

Choose the correct primer: before painting, it is necessary to prepare the bottom of the hull. Preliminary technical considerations indicate that a one-component product can be given either over a material directly (depending on its nature) or over a two-component product. The opposite (two-component over one-component) cannot be done. Almost all paints with biocide (fixed matrix or self-sanding) are single-component products, and at the same time almost all available primers are two-component.

So: what is the correct choice(s) if you want to abandon an old-generation product with a new-generation product?

We basically have 2 paths;
The first (recommended) is to sandblast the hull (carry out a final and total removal of all previously applied paint layers) then primer and new antifouling.

The second: if you do not want to incur the expense, we recommend heavy sanding with coarse grit to remove up to 80% of the residues of old paint underneath and the application of “preparatory” products for the high-strength primer such as DEFENDER epoxy primer by gruppo boero.

For any technical support please contact ufficiotecnico@keelcrab.com