Product Development By Testing: How We Learn From Results

The test shown here is about a protective coating for bright and corroded steel sheets in a highly salty environment. We were able to win over the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd for a cooperation.

From many comparable tests we selected the test shown here. Reason: further down, at the end, you will see the results are achieved quickly and visible at first glance.

Let’s get started: first we will show you how we worked on the ship.

Behind the black shell plate there are the ballast water tanks filled with salt water. In these tanks we conduct our highly accelerated and thus shortened tests. We call them “time-lapse tests”. Our Philosophy: “If it lasts here, it will work everywhere later”.

With a length of 366 metres the “Hamburg Express” is one of the largest vessels of Hapag-Lloyd. The ship continuously shuttles between Hamburg and China. During the voyage it crosses several climate zones.

These narrow passageways are located directly behind the shell plate. They have a length of more than 300 metres! From here hatchways lead down to the ballast water tanks.

Rarely the sheets are completely submerged under water as they are today at the pick-up. Nevertheless the conditions here at the “transition area” are the worst. The alternation between salt water and air cause extremely strong corrosion.

Would you like to know why the water is so clear? The tank was not filled here in Hamburg but months ago in the Pacific Ocean. Before the frame can be recovered the water is pumped down for us.

A seaman climbs down into the ballast tank and unscrews the frame. As we do not want to damage the hull plating during our tests we use C-clamps as fasteners.

It’s done! The frames are back up on the deck. This test is about testing how well our new transparent protective coatings work. To be able to make better comparisons we tested four different mixtures of our new material against established wax coatings.

When testing in a laboratory the evaluation often takes a lot of effort. Reason: the differences in performance of the different materials are not easy to recognize in a laboratory test.
With our tests that is different: Due to the almost always easily detectable differences most of the time a visual examination is sufficient.

Take a look at the sheet at the top left: our new transparent protective layer protected the steel very effectively. Soon afterwards we put the material on the market under the name “UBS Clear”. Our customers use the product both as underbody coating for vehicles and as protective layer in industry and ship building.

Learning From Results

And now back to the picture shown above. The test above on the container ship of Hapag-Lloyd was the successful conclusion of a very long series of tests. It is easy to see that the recipe used on the sheet on the top left worked brilliantly. Despite heat, cold and salt water: corrosion did not prevail. The sheet remained undamaged!

It took five extensive test cycles in three whole years to come this far!

Often several years pass between the first recipe and the product ready for the market. With many tests it first is about finding out whether the path chosen is the right one.

Improve the existing recipe or better try something new? Most of the time we know after the first or second test whether the chosen path is the right one.

Having passed the “time-lapse tests” the materials have to go through one more test.

This is the test in exactly the environment in which the material will later be used.

Depending on the purpose for which we developed the material this can really be anywhere: everything made of steel will sooner or later need really good protection against corrosion!

How We Learn From Results

Product Development By Testing: How We Learn From Results

Learning From Results

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