Norway's new frigates rust after 3 months..

[Raggi_Thor]

It has been much talk in Norway about the new frigates (correct name?) being built in Spain, by Navantia . Now I guess many Norwegian boat builders are saying "what did I tell you". Three months after delivery, there is allready rust on the deck and topsides. The reason is, according to local radio, insufficient cleaning after sand blasting and before painting and a "bad paint job" (don't know if they mean the quality of the paint or the work).
According to DNV rust like this normally takes 2 years to develop.

Picture is taken from
http://nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/hordaland/1.931528

Miguel Martinez Guerro in Navantia says this kind of rust is completely normal and has to be expected.

Here is a brief description of one of the frigates from Navantia;
http://www.navantia.es/cgi-bin/run.d...p/categoria.do

And from Ricerche Militari
http://www.ricerchemilitari.it/Products/Nansen.htm

Any comments?
Guillermo? :-)

[kach22i]

I have one word for you young man, "Composites".........it's the future.........................as spoken to Benjamin Braddock (The Graduate, 1967) Dustin Hoffman's character.

Well it was Plastics in the movie.

[SamSam]

I used to sandblast bulk oil storage tanks at oil company 'tank farms' and we did no cleaning after blasting, before painting. The big priority was to prime as soon as possible after blasting as the blasted surface immediatly starts degrading. Any actual solid water on the steel would start rusting in minutes, high humidity wasn't too much better. From the picture it looks as if the edges of things or hard to get at, hidden areas didn't get painted right and that is bleeding over the rest of the ship. The claim that the rust starting so soon is normal is debateable, but for a businessman to try and weasel out of a problem by claiming it is so, sounds completely normal. Sam

[MikeJohns]

Raggi
Looks like a claim on the manufacturer. Definately a poor paint spec and or application.

[Raggi_Thor]

I was wondering if there is a "culture clash" here, between northern and southern Europe :-) The manuffacturer claims that this rust is normal, so I hope the Norwegian navy has written a clear spec in the contract.

[marshmat]

We have a World War II warship, the HMCS Haida, at the navy base near my main cruising grounds. After six decades and several repaintings and restorations, it still has less rust than that thing does. I see a crappy paint job there.....

[safewalrus]

Poor maintainance springs to mind! OK so you get a bit of rust especially at points like tha (edges) on a "working" vessel. Also often the paint job done before a sale is only one coat for various reason (not all bad - the client may want it NOW so you only get chance to slap a quick coat on it!).

In the old days (for want of a better term) a good bosun or whatever you want to call him would have his crew on maintainance the day after take over, touching up and greasing etc immediately - especially in Norther water which can be abit nasty at certain times of the year when it comes to painting inside! Mind you what I've seen of the British Navy (and I guess others are much the same, painting and cleaning is below the average matelot these days who seem to consider themselves above that sort of thing).

The difference between Northern and Southern climates may be a contributing factor but the main one is maintainance. Incidentally the last new ship I commissioned (a North Sea Supply vessel) was built in Norway and she was rusting the same way when we took her over - so guess what the crew was doing before we sailed for the UK!

No whinges there, it wasn't much just streaks like those but unsightly and would get worse! so on went a coat of paint!

[westlawn5554X]

A few tonne of WD40 will be a start

[Richard Hillsid]

Don’t import form India, China or Spain,
We all have our jobs to look after and we make the duality that is needed in our country wherever it is.

This does not mean India, Spain etc should not build boats just not export them.

[Guillermo]

Originally Posted by Raggi_Thor

Any comments? Guillermo? :-)

Aren't those rust marks elegant?

[SamSam]

Originally Posted by Guillermo

Aren't those rust marks elegant?

It sort of reminds me of Tammy Fay Baker after their personal apocalypse. Sam

[Guillermo]

Originally Posted by Richard Hillsid

Don’t import form India, China or Spain,
We all have our jobs to look after and we make the duality that is needed in our country wherever it is.

This does not mean India, Spain etc should not build boats just not export them.

Well, I have a point here. You should tell this to all norwegian shipowners who have built their ships very satisfactorily in Spain. Also you can tell the norwegian firms with factories here. If you do not like globalization, that's your problem, but please do not scorn others.

By the way, We import goods from Norway, sometimes with quality problems, and we do not post this kind of nonsense.

[safewalrus]

Well said Gilly, everybody is entitled to produce goods and sell them no matter who or what to where and from where - it's what trade is all about! And everybody has problems with quality from time to time! It's up to the buyer to say sorry your stuff is no good, either get better or I'll go elsewhere! If you don't like a thing don't buy it! others may and should be allowed to buy what they want. It's also about how you use it - the Norwegians build some fine ships, just can't use the damn things properly (hows that for catty? actually it's not true but they do have some crap seamen - just like most other nations in the world! )

[Poida]

We build boats too and export them, and we don't charge extra for the rust.

[Guillermo]

Mike: Thanks for the support....

Originally Posted by Poida

We build boats too and export them, and we don't charge extra for the rust.

Neither do we, even it being a first quality rust!

Seriously: As I personally know the Naval Engineer in charge of the 5 frigates series construction, I'm going to ask him the reason why that rust appears at those side discharges and let you, insane minds, know (I would like also to ask the norwegian navy's team of inspectors, but I do not know them.... )