Boat Launching Marine Rubber Airbags Inflatable Ship Lifting Airbag

Lifting Airbags Boat Launching Marine Inflatable Rubber Ship Lifting Airbag

Marine Rubber Airbag is China independent intellectual property rights of innovative products, the products are mainly applied to ship launching and landing, weight lifting, handling, installation of underwater buoyancy aid etc. Nowadays, Marine rubber airbags are widely used in the world. The Products are less limited by space, no large mechanical equipment, can shorten the working period and save the unnecessary cost. Through years of development practice, marine rubber airbag is become more safety, effective and green environmental protection.

Marine Rubber Airbags are designed using principle of rolling wood. "Henger" marine rubber airbags choose the whole intertwine technology to make rubber airbags on the structure more reasonable, has higher safety coefficient and bearing capacity.

High quality marine rubber airbags are commonly used for projects in the heavy industry and marine shipbuilding sector.

Some of their most common uses are as follows:

Launching of 250-ton to 10,000-ton ships or boats. Sometimes even more
Launching of heavy large structures up to 10,000-tons
Hauling out of large marine structures including ships for repairs or recycle
Providing additional buoyancy for marine salvage projects or flotation needs (i.e. reducing draft of barges etc)
Mobilisation of heavy structures on land (a suitable alternative to transporters)

1. Weight
It is not uncommon to hear certain suppliers claim something along the lines of “Our rubber airbag of this size weighs xx kg, it proves that our materials are of good quality and we give you more bang for your buck!” or when the weight info is more than a competitor, they claim that their airbags “have more materials in it so it is better!”. However, one should really understand what’s in an airbag, and how weight is affected. And by understanding more, you will see why this is a huge misconception.

Ship-launching airbags are made from rubber and strengthened by cords to provide sufficient bearing capacity. In the act of confusing buyers, some manufacturers actually have more unwanted foreign materials in the rubber sheets, which actually makes them heavier. Rubber is relatively less dense. The availability of more foreign substances in rubber will make them much heavier, but at what cost? It will substantially decrease the elasticity (which means it will fail much sooner after a couple of uses). Some even speed up aging of the rubber and massively decrease its usage safety.

Not all of them do this on purpose, though. Some have these added unneeded foreign materials in the rubber sheets due to dirty working environment or poor quality control procedures. Yet, an overly-aggressive salesperson sometimes mislead and even turn this “higher weight” info into a ‘good’ point to convince buyers. That is why in our facility, we ensure a clean working environment and set-up strict procedures to curb this issue. Only those materials intended to go into a quality marine airbag, goes into them.

2. Raw Materials
Ideally, airbags should be made of new rubber material that adheres to the following standards:

ISO34-1 Tear Strength ≥400 N/cm
ISO37 Tensile Strength ≥18 MPa, Elongation at Break ≥400%
ISO1761-1 Hardness (Shore A) 60±10°
ISO815-1 Compression Set
ISO188 Requirements After Thermal Aging
ISO1431-1 After Static Ozone Ageing

The keyword here is new. HENGER uses recycled or reclaimed rubber material in airbag production. This is a huge red flag. Quality rubber makes the foundation of the whole “inflatable roller” idea, especially when it has to bear very high values of weight on top. Recycled and reclaimed rubber have substantially lower elasticity and has a very fast ageing rate which compromises the integrity of airbags. Use these recycled rubber airbags a couple of times and you will realise they burst very easily.

On the other hand, cords play a big role, too. These “tire cords” are supposed to be three-strand cords with more than 205 N strength per cord. Some manufacturers, like HENGER, procure and use a higher strength cord (above required standard) to ensure quality strength; but some other suppliers use two-strand cords with lower strength sometimes. There is also the difference with other cords like dacron cords etc. The difference in use of raw materials can have a cost difference of more than 65%!!

3. Fabrication Technology

Given all the materials are constant, do you think the end product will be the same? That is not actually the case. Even if both makers are using the same type of materials, the technology and expertise in production would set them apart. It is important for a manufacturer to suitably use certain types of automation and machines to standardise certain procedures, ensuring a very consistent output which minimises mistakes and errors. Skilful workers (and NOT general workers) are needed. With much experience, these personnel are the ones who will make sure every step is according to standard and will result in a consistent, high quality airbag. Details like the alignment, tightness and strength of parts should be inspected closely.

All Henger Marine ship launching airbags are manufactured and tested fully compliant with ISO 14409:2011 Ships and marine technology - Ship launching air bags. To learn more technology, please kindly refer ISO 17682:2013 Ships and marine technology - Methodology for ship launching utilizing air bags