When submerged in water, Dolphin II creates an ultra-smooth, slippery surface that prevents organisms from attaching. The product lasts multiple seasons, and unlike most existing products on the market today, Dolphin II and N4 do not contain any biocides and are environmentally friendly. Dolphin and N4 are designed to meet the requirements of the recently passed legislation in the US House that supports a transition to copper-free anti-fouling marine coatings by 2028.
Naval vessels typically have drydock maintenance schedules that are on multi-year cycles, making AST’s copper-free anti-fouling technology the only foul release coating that has third-party testing data showing superior performance to Hempel’s X3 and Akzo Nobel’s BRA-640 or 1100SR.
“With this new 53-month data, we are able to showcase that our anti-fouling technology outperforms the competition on a timeframe can meet the consumer expectation of a multi-year lifecycle,” said Grant Tremelling, CEO of Adaptive Surface Technologies. “We are excited to be able to release this new positive data closely following the recent legislation that calls for naval vessels transition from copper-based antifouling coatings by 2028.”
This testing has been underway since 2019 and is conducted by an independent third party at the National University of Singapore (NUS). During testing, AST’s coatings are compared with multiple market-leading foul-release coatings. Every month, half the panel is washed with a low-pressure (50 psi) waterjet designed to simulate the motion of a boat. All of AST’s coatings performed better than the commercial controls at 18-, 44-, and now 53-month checkpoints under these dynamic conditions.
