About 20-30% of vessels resistance in ice comes from friction between the hull and ice. Difference of high- and low-friction coatings have a significant influence on fuel consumption and speed of the vessel, and in difficult ice conditions even vessels gets stuck due to high friction.
Aker Arctic has developed a friction testing machine for paints used in hull protection. This special measurement rig was inspected and approved by Russian Maritime Register.
This new test method and rig allows to measure any paint and comparison studies have showed good correlation with full-scale results. That is why DNV´s new requirements recognize Aker Arctic test procedure as the method to measure friction between paint and ice. The whole set of requirements can be found on DNV´s website.
