Final thoughts
In the absence of PIANC guidelines on the manufacture and testing of foam fenders, they have previously been perceived a commodity product, one that requires little specification and engineering. However, this extremely versatile fender solution represents the optimum solution for a number of applications. The consideration, specification and production of foam fenders should be taken more seriously, to give facility owners and operators the confidence to specify foam in even the most demanding and critical applications.
This paper, containing Trelleborg’s research into the characteristics of foam, and the way foam fenders are tested, aims to provide some background and guidance on the issue.
In addition, Trelleborg has launched a brand new webinar in which technical expert, Mishra Kumar explains the results of the research program in more detail, and how specifiers can use this new data to inform foam fender specification going forward.
The webinar extends to discussing the new test methods available to substantiate supplier performance data, through step-by-step test protocols for performance and quality assurance testing.