What Is Pneumatic Rubber Fender Used For

Pneumatic rubber fender is made of synthetic-cord-reinforced rubber sheet with compressed air inside to enable it to float on the water and work as a shock absorber to protect the ship body and its coating when ship-to-ship(STS) transfer operations and ship-to-dock(STD) berthing and mooring operations. So it has more advantages than normal fenders, which only work with elasticity of compression.

1.High Energy Absorption
Energy absorption is one main technical performance indicator of fenders. With tonnage growth of ships, the collision energy between ship or other vessel and quay during berthing operations has grown exponentially. The huge collision energy should be absorbed by fully deformation and sufficient contact area of fenders. The deflection rate of pneumatic fender can be up to more than 60%, and contact area will expand fast with the deflection. So its energy absorption is much higher than other fenders.

2.Low Reaction Force
The air in pneumatic fender is low-pressure, which is hardly be increased during deflection. Because of its large contact area, the unit surface pressure is only 120KN/M acted upon the ship. Abviously it is much lower than other fenders.

3.Good Adaption of Inclined Contact
For a ship, there should be a certain angle for shore-connection. Berth fender has a higher adaption than other fenders when comes to clined contact.

4. Floating on Water, Suitable for Ship Swaying
Floating on water, the position of pneumatic fender with respect to the ship will not be changed during tidal fluctuations. Especially when the ship is rocking with the swell, cylindrical inflatable fenders will roll at the same time with small friction. Therefore the coasting of the ship will not be damaged, but also play a role in anti-sway damping.