Marine Rubber Airbags For Ship Launching And Lifting

One of the most prominent applications of airbags. In traditional shipbuilding, getting a newly constructed vessel into the water is a critical and complex operation. Airbags simplify this process significantly.
Before Launch: The airbags are carefully positioned beneath the ship's hull at strategic locations. These locations are determined based on the ship's weight distribution, hull shape, and the design of the launching ramp. The airbags are then inflated to a specific pressure, gradually lifting the ship off the building berth. This reduces the friction between the ship and the ramp surface.
During Launch: As the ship is released, the airbags act as rolling supports. They allow the ship to move smoothly down the ramp into the water. The flexibility of the rubber airbags enables them to conform to the shape of the hull, providing even support and minimizing the risk of damage to the ship's structure during the launch. For example, small to medium - sized ships, such as fishing boats and coastal yachts, can be launched efficiently using a set of well - placed marine airbags.

Marine rubber airbags for ship launching and lifting are equally important in ship hauling operations, which involve bringing a ship out of the water for maintenance, repair, or dry - docking.

Positioning in Water: When hauling a ship, the airbags are first placed in the water around the ship's hull. They are inflated to create a buoyant support system that can lift the ship partially or completely out of the water. This is especially useful when there is no large - scale crane or traditional hauling infrastructure available.

Moving onto Land: Once the ship is lifted by the airbags, they can be used to roll the ship onto a slipway or into a dry dock. The airbags' ability to distribute the ship's weight evenly helps prevent damage to the hull during the transition from water to land. This application is particularly beneficial for older ships or those in remote locations where access to modern hauling facilities is limited.

In the vast expanse of the world's oceans, countless vessels and valuable objects have met their demise beneath the waves. Buoyancy salvage is a crucial technique employed to retrieve these sunken items, and airbags have emerged as indispensable tools in this field. Airbags are inflatable devices made from high - quality rubber materials, designed to withstand the harsh marine environment. Their unique properties of elasticity, strength, and buoyancy make them ideal for use in buoyancy salvage operations.

Main technical requirement of airbag made by Luhang Marine are complied to ISO 14409 "Ships and marine technology – ship launching air bags". Luhang uses a new rubber formulation and a high-strength reinforced synthetic tire cord layer, making the airbag's load-carrying capacity twice as high as the ISO 14409-2011 standard.
The strength & durability of our rubber airbag improves 40%, compared to polyester tire cord.
 

When airbags roll beneath a ship, due to uneven rolling speeds, they are subjected to a "kneading force" from both the ship's bottom and the ground. This makes them highly susceptible to issues such as delamination and layer buckling. Luhang has made significant improvements to the production process and raw material formula to enhance the airbags' resistance to this kneading force, thereby preventing more serious accidents. In our production, each layer of the rubber airbags is coated with a specially formulated mucilage. This mucilage serves two important functions. Firstly, it helps to dissolve impurities and dust, ensuring a cleaner and more stable internal structure for the airbag. Secondly, it significantly increases the adhesiveness between each layer. This enhanced adhesiveness not only strengthens the overall integrity of the airbag but also effectively guarantees its airtightness.

As the working pressure of the airbag increases, the possibility of air leakage in the area where the metal part meets the end rubber body increases. After repeated use at high operating pressures, the airbag will burst at the end metal part, causing injury to nearby workers or facilities.

Luhang invented a third-generation anti-explosion design for the airbag ends, which improves the bonding strength and airtightness of the rubber body part to the metal part of the ends.

Luhang has taken an important step in enhancing the durability of its products by adding an additional wear - resistant layer on the outside. This wear - resistant layer is distinct from the rubber of the skeleton material. It features a higher hardness, which endows it with superior wear - resistance properties. By having this wear - resistant layer, the service life of the product is effectively ensured. On the other hand, the skeleton material itself possesses a strong tensile force. This characteristic is crucial as it guarantees the strength of the skeleton structure. The combination of the wear - resistant outer layer and the strong - tensile - force skeleton material works in harmony to enhance the overall performance and longevity of Luhang's products.

Airbags work in poor conditions, such as long sun exposure, seawater corrosion, and impurity pollution. The surface of the airbag must be highly resistant to wear, aging, and corrosion.

Luhang airbags are made from natural rubber, have a special composition, and use unique manufacturing methods. The finished airbags work well under the harsh operating conditions described above.

Our products have an impressively long service life of up to 12 years. In fact, many of our customers find that even after 10 years, the airbags are still in good enough condition to be repaired and continue in use. This makes our airbags the first choice for launching teams. These teams rely on the repeated use of airbags and require products with both a long service life and high durability.

Luhang airbags are made with a special monolithic winding technology. They have an even wall thickness and extra seams at overlapping parts.

These flexible airbags reduce structural stresses and ship - launching risks when ships roll on slopes or in uneven channels.

Severe deformation can cause airbag layers to separate, leading to worse accidents. But Luhang Airbags have never had dangerous distortion during ship launching.